Authors note: Paragraphs alternate between authors. * means DreamCrosser is writing. ~ means sopranokittythegreat is writing.

...

*Saturday finally came for the two best friends. Unfortunately Lin was a bit uneasy. Last morning, the very man who called himself Amon hijacked the radio station broadcast and announced that the pro bending tournament should be closed. Thankfully, it was still going on due to the fact that the newspaper announced that metal bending police will be protecting the area. That gave her a positive boost, but she still felt that feeling in her stomach. She decided to brush that off so she would not freak out Fira.

The two friends stood in line to get their tickets.

"I can't wait to see the Fire Ferrets beat the Wolf Bats can you?" Lin asked her friend as she smiled the biggest grin in the world.

~"Nope!" Fira grinned back, practically vibrating, or rather, she was vibrating. Her attempting to appear normal by not sending off charges of electricity, like she normally would, was causing the excess energy to build up inside of her, which made her shake uncontrollably. She had her hair braided so that it wouldn't float in public, but a few strands stood up, just waving in the breeze, earning her a few weirded out looks from her fellow civilians.

Her smile became tainted with irritation. "Well, at least we'll get to see the Fire Ferrets beat them physically, they probably won't win the match because the Wolf Bats are a bunch of good-for-nothing, cheating pricks who bribe their way through life. I swear, if it wasn't for their sponsors, they wouldn't have the honest skills to work as street sweepers!" Chuckling, she looked around and nearly screamed, somehow limiting herself to a frightened squeak and a small burst of electricity.

Paralyzed with horror, she stared at the profile of Ziron, just ten people behind her in line. Taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly, she realized that he was talking with some of his friends from the power plant and that he had not seen her. She was also relieved to see that the burn on his face was nearly gone. Letting out a sigh, she turned away from him before she would accidentally catch his eye or draw Lin's attention to him, as she was pretty sure that she would go after him. She didn't understand why, but she still kind of liked him, even after he had gone after her like that during the riot. She guessed it was sort of like how she still loved her parents, even though they had pretty much disowned her as soon as they had found out she was a firebender, which happened not long after she was born.

Shuddering, she edged closer to Lin.

*"Ha, maybe. But who knows, maybe the Fire Ferrets will have luck on their side" Lin said as she took a step forward toward the ticket booth. "Two tickets please for the lower section" she asked the ticket booth guy and handed him five yuans.

The ticket guy gave her the tickets and smiled. "Enjoy the game."

"Will do" she said. She spun around on her foot to face Fira and handed her a ticket "Guess who got us near the front row?" she beamed "This is going to be so awesome. Just you, me, and some high paced action!"

~"Are you serious? This is SO AWESOME!" Fira squealed, bouncing up and down. In her glee, she momentarily lost control of her electric charge, and lightning bolts zipped through the air around her and her wide grin became internally lit as she tried to stop herself from breathing fire. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, but began to feel uneasy. Her antics had caught the attention of a lot of people and she felt someone staring at her, burning a hole into the back of her head. Then she made perhaps the dumbest mistake of her day- she turned around. Gorgeous copper eyes locked fiercely with hers and a pathetic, high pitched whimper snuck past her lips.

*Ziron started walking towards to the two friends, steaming hands showing his anger rising.
Lin's face turned into pure concentration as she stepped in front of her friend. "And what do you think you are going to do?"

"Give this witch a taste of what's good for her" he spat at her "the good for nothing job stealer."

"You can't just beat her down for who she is, so what if she is more powerful that you."

"No" he barked "SHE, is not normal. SHE is an alien. And SHE had no right to give me this!" he yelled as he poked a finger at his eye. His hands were engulfed in flame by now.

Lin feared for Fira's life. She took an earthbending stance. But then she noticed something. "Do you really want to do this with the metal bending police here?"

~Ziron smirked. "You really think I'm the one who'll end up in a cell? That freak is a danger to society."

Fira's eyes widened, she knew Lin would go after him now, but this was her fight and she needed to end it once and for all before her friend got burned because of her. She pulled herself together and stepped between Lin and Ziron. White flames swirled around her making her look like some sort of avenging angel. She was pretty pissed off and when she spoke, light blue flames curled out from her lips. "Really, Ziron, I'm a job stealer." Cocking her head, she continued, "'Cuz, last I checked, I lost mine after your lovely riot. If I had actually "stolen" somebody's job, I would still freaking have one!" Her fire flared blindingly around her and she took a step closer to him, her voice took an uncharacteristically dangerous low tone. "And I don't see why you'd be trying for revenge, after all, you did strike first, and if I'm such a terribly dangerous freak, you should have known better than to attack me."
Despite himself, Ziron gulped and took a step back- but Fira wasn't done yet.

"I am very sorry about your eye, it seems to be healing up very well. Don't worry; I think it'll be fine in a couple of days. Though, it must have hurt a lot. I, on the other hand-" she examined one of her flaming hands, "-cannot quite remember what my eye felt like, because, somehow, I managed to retain this horrible concussion." She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, looking him deep in his eyes with a mockingly puzzled look. "Though I still don't understand as to why you would punch a girl. Isn't that considered cowardly or something? And really? I was only messing around, I wasn't trying to take anyone's place. After all, other people need jobs too!" She gave him a pointed look.

Ziron's face became very red as his anger built up in him again, causing him to resemble (at least in Fira's mind) a pimple on the verge of explosion. His fists clenched and dagger-like flames shot out of them.

*Lin leaned over Fira's shoulders. "My friend, you need to settle down and get a move on. You see you are holding up the line and..."

Ziron lashed out at the two girls in a swirling fire punch type move. But as quick as lightning Lin retaliated by stomping the ground, making a slab of concert pop out of the ground and held it there as Ziron punched it.

Ziron yelped in surprise and pain as his fist collided with it. Lin smirked. "What? Never fought an earthbender before, bub?"

"Hey what's going on here?" shouted a metal bending cop.

"This doof is giving us problems" Lin responded, several other people agreed with complaints of their own.

~Fira began taking slow, deep breaths, desperately trying to cool down before the cops noticed those deadly and nearly invisible white flames still swirling around her, and shrunk back behind Lin. She was still internally seething from Ziron and was really wishing that she had been able to give his face a bit more symmetry.

"What about her?" Ziron yelled furiously, causing her to jump. He pointed accusingly at her. "She's out of control! Don't tell me you can't see that fire! She's going to seriously hurt someone! Look!-" he said pointing to his scar, "-She burned me last week! Had me in the hospital for three days! Doctor said they were third degree!"

A large police officer took a step towards Fira and narrowed his eyes. She looked fearfully up at him and shrank back trembling, wishing for the millionth time in her sixteen years that she could simply turn herself into a real flame and fade out of existence.

* "Officer, there is a perfect explanation for this" Lin quickly explained "My friend here has a rare natural mutation she had since she was born. It is very hard to control alone, that is why I live with her. This guy was a worker at the local power plant, the same one my friend Fira worked at. He attacked her and set her emotions off balance, earning him a burn to the face. He should have known about his fellow worker's problem, his boss would have told him. Now he just can't leave us in peace!"

"But she's crazy! Just look at her!" Ziron claimed.

Lin summed more concrete to wrap around her arms and chest for protection. "She's not crazy," she said hugging her friend, trying to calm Fira down "She just has issues like you and me."

~"Fine. Just make sure she gets that fire under control, I can feel it from over here." Growled the cop, "And you!" he barked, snapping his head around to face Ziron. "I better not see you causing any more trouble, or you're going to be spending your night in a cell!"

Ziron just stood there wide eyed, his mouth opened and closed like he was going to say something but thought better of it.

"Now get in line and get your ticket before I make you go home." The cop ordered.

"Y-yes sir" Ziron stuttered and quickly began doing just that, still looking rather dumbstruck.

Fira's flames dissipated. "Thank you, Lin." She whispered. Tears began running down her cheeks. Why her? Why did she have to be such a freak? As the police walked away, she could see several of the men sending her fearful glances over their shoulders. She looked away and buried her face in Lin's shoulder.

*Lin placed the concrete back into the ground and began to rub her friend's shoulder. "It's okay," she said as she guided Fira towards the doors leading toward the arena "Let's just forget about it and have ourselves a great time tonight. I will try my best to make this the best night that has ever happened to you."