"Come on, Mako, let's do something exciting!"

Mako, Bolin and Asami were chilling under the shade of a big tree on Airtemple island and watched the airbender kids train. Korra was nowhere to be found.

"What do you want me to do, bro?" Mako exhaled deeply and lifted his shoulders helplessly. "I can't think of anything, now that the probending arena is closed and we don't have to train all the time."

"That doesn't mean we have to get out of shape, right?" Bolin jumped up and down in excitement. "Come on, big brother. See how good Korra became when she started practicing airbending? Maybe we can ask master Tenzin to train with the little guys."

"Be the leaf!" Meelo yelled in the distance.

"I'm sorry, Bo, but Asami and I are gonna hang out later."

"That's right." Asami smiled as she placed her head over Mako's shoulder. "We'll have a boat trip around the island and then a picnic."

"We want to relax a little bit after all the things that happened." Mako confirmed. "And hopefully have some time just the two of us."

"Oh." Bolin said, getting a little bit upset. "Okay, I guess I'll wander around Republic City and see what I can do. Pa-a-a-a-buu!" he shouted and almost immediately the fire ferret came down the tree and climbed over his shoulder.

"Are you sure?" Mako looked concerned. "Well, avoid dark alleys, you can get jumped by equalists."

"Please!" Bolin laughed and patted Pabu on his head. "This little guy's got my back."

"It's a bad idea." Mako said as his brother rolled away.

"YOU'RE a bad idea!" Bolin yelled over his shoulder.

Bolin took the ferry to Republic City and went to his favorite place, the statue of Firelord Zuko, looking for Scoochie* and the other boys. These kids, much like him and Mako, pretty much grew out on the street, so, needless to say, Bolin liked hanging out with them.

Unfortunately, they weren't at their usual hangout, so he went wandering the streets, looking for something to do. He finally decided to go to his beloved restaurant, the place he took Korra to when they went out, to treat himself with a bowl of noodles. He was just about to do so, when suddenly, Pabu squealed as if he was sensing danger, and started to sniff about in the direction of a dark alley, for which Bolin was pretty sure was a dead end. If alleys had signs on them, this one would of had a big and shiny one, saying "They'll never find your body."

"I don't know, Pabu." Bolin said and looked sceptically at his pet. "Mako told me not to wander in dark alleys. Put your senses on hold just this time."

But Pabu jumped off his shoulder and rushed into the alley, disappearing from sight almost immediately.

"Pabu!" Bolin yelled as he followed his buddy. "Oh, sweet cabbages, I'm gonna get myself into trouble again."

When he entered the alley, he saw two figures in the shadows - one of a man, and the other of a woman. The girl seemed to struggle as the man was holding her hand stronger than usual. This immediately woke up the long asleep superhero Bolin always wanted to be - Boulderman. As a kid, he always used to find old capes which were too long for him, put them on and pretend to help people. Of course, every time he ended up running from an angry merchant whose store he had just ruined.

"Fear not, miss!" Bolin enthusiastically yelled as he charged the man. "I will save you!"

He threw the man in the air using Earthbending and quickly jumped on top of him as he landed, leaving him almost unconscious.

"Please, please." Bolin put on his most charming smile as he got up to see the thankful citizen he had just saved. "No need to thank me, I was just doing my job."

When the light fell on the girl's face, Bolin was so stunned, that even if he tried to say something, he would probably have sounded like Tenzin's sky bison, Oogie. The girl had perfect red lips, short red hair and big green eyes just like his. Bolin blushed without even knowing it.

"Erm... I, um..."

"You idiot! I didn't need no help, it was all under control!" the girl yelled, turned her back and left without saying a word.

Five minutes passed until poor Bolin was finally able to move. When his brain cells finally came to, he could only find the strength to mumble:

"Wait, what?"

When Bolin left the restaurant with Pabu on his shoulder, it was almost dusk. Even after four portions of Flameo noodles, he was still feeling a bit under the weather, which was saying a lot. The only other time these delicious works of God couldn't make him happy was when, a year or so ago, Pabu suddenly vanished and, even after seven bowls of noodles, Bolin just wouldn't stop crying. Turned out that the ferret actually had fallen asleep under his bed. His record, however, was 12 bowls - it was when Bolin had walked up on Mako and Korra kissing. Man, he was a mess back then.

But what Bolin didn't understand was how come the girl he saw earlier wasn't instantly charmed by his looks.

"I mean, I'm still gorgeous, right, Pabu?" Bolin mumbled and looked at his pet for comfort. "What did I do wrong?"

He was half the way to the ferry to Airtemple island, when he heard a swinging sound coming from afar, yet quickly approaching. He had heard that sound before! Bolin jumped left just in time to dodge a flying metal rope - the same the equalists used when they caught him and led him to Amon. Right after that he was jumped at by a shadowy figure in black uniform and an equalist mask. It even wore an electrocuting glove much like the one Asami had.

The attacker engaged with swift strikes and Bolin merely dodged them. He quickly realized that, with his move style "slow, but strong", he wasn't going to be much of an opponent. He just had to take one, two if he was lucky, punches from the chi blocker and he was pretty much done. What was he supposed to do then? For now he was managing to dodge the equalist's attacks but his energy was quickly draining - he wasn't going to keep this up for long. He finally saw an opportunity and took it - the chi blocker swung too fast, so Bolin parried and created a big earth wall between them, creating some distance. The chi blocker jumped over the wall and landed behind him, right into his trap.

"Gotcha!" just a second ago, Bolin had softened the ground, making it basically like quicksand - the equalist sunk to his knees.

"Who's the man? Bolin's the man!" The earthbender allowed himself to cheer up a bit as he had just beaten a chi blocker. "You equalists want more of this sweet skill?"

He walked to the chi blocker with a grin on his face. The equalist tried to punch him, but ended up sinking even more and now was barely able to move his arms.

"Now, let's see who do we have here." Bolin smiled as he placed his hand on the equalist mask. Underneath emerged the face of the gorgeous girl he saved an hour ago.

"Wha-a-a-at? Bolin nearly fell in the quicksand. With a quick "Blop!" the chi blocker sneaked out of the trap, landed a quick punch at Bolin, paralyzing his arms, and drifted away in the night.

Bolin got back to Airtemple island a bit before midnight, only to find the pissed off Mako in their room.

"Where the hell have you been? I was worried sick!"

"I was eating noodles." Bolin said, making up a puppy face.

"At this hour? I was going to wake up Korra and go search for you! AGAIN! And don't you make those puppy eyes, they ain't gonna work this time."

"Wake up Korra?" Bolin laughed uncomfortably. "Isn't that... a bit excessive?"

"Either you tell me what happened or tonight you sleep with Naga."

Bolin sighed.

"FINE. I was kind of... attacked by a chi blocker."

The yelling Mako woke up everyone in Airtemple island.

"SEE? I KNEW IT WAS A BAD IDEA!"

"YOU'RE A BAD IDEA!"

* Scoochie is the little kid Mako visited in episode 3 when Bolin went missing.