Chapter Four:

After hours of flying, we finally swooped down at Yue Bay. Their we were greeted by the enormous statue of my predecessor Aang. Kaze looked up towards it with awe. "Wow its amazing!" she cried.

Tetsu stood up and flexed his muscles. "THIS STATUE WAS BUILT BY NO ONE ELSE BUT MY GREAT ANCESTOR TOPH." he bellowed.

"Quite Impressive" I remarked. "Did she really build the whole thing herself."

"Not quite" Tetsu replied as he sat down. "She built the general structure, and her students did the detail work."

We soon landed at a dock nearby the Pro-Bending Arena. It was an huge dome surrounded by golden wall. "There it is." I remarked.

"All we need is a fourth bender, and then we can start a team." Tetsu said. "I wonder how we can find one."

We walked into the arena and up to the front desk. "We are starting a Pro-Bending Team. We are wondering how we can find a fourth member.

The man held up a clipboard. "Sign up here. I'll hook you up with an extra teammate as soon as I can."

I signed my name, and passed it to Testu. "Thanks a lot." I said.

Tetsu and Kaze signed the paper and handed it to the man. He stared at it for a few seconds, and his eyes went wide with surprise. "Woh!" he said. "You said that you are a 'Waterbender or Firebender', you must be the Avatar!"

"Yup!" said Kaze with a big smile.

"It's been a century since we had the Avatar compete in Pro Bending. Quite amazing."

"Well thanks again." I said. "We have to go now."

"I leave our number so you can call us." Tetsu added.

As we walked out something dawned on me. "Tetsu where are we staying? You did give him a number."

"ummm..." Tetsu tried to say.

"Yeah who are we staying with?" Kaze asked.

"My sister Kuma" Testu said weakly.

I looked at Tetsu with confusion. "What's so bad about that?"

"I TOLD YOU NEVER TO GO BACK TO REPUBLIC CITY! EVER!". Kuma roared as she slammed the door shut.

"But this is the Avatar." Tetsu moaned.

Kuma opened up the door. She had long blonde hair and was quite attractive, but it was somewhat reduced by her stern gaze. "Al right you can stay." she grunted.

Tetsu stared blankly in amazement. "THANK YOU SO MUCH SISTER! I SWEAR YOU WON'T REGRET THIS AT ALL!"

"I'll be sure. Now come on in, before I change my mind!"

Kuma lead us into her house which was rather modest for the chief of the metalbending police. She lead us down a hall and opened up a door. "You can stay in your old room."

Tetsu stood in the doorway and gazed into the room in confusion. "It's just like how it was when I left. Ten years ago."

Kuma looked at Tetsu with contempt. "I wouldn't go anywhere near your stupid room."

Kuma lead us further down the hall and opened two door. "You guys can sleep in these rooms."

Tetsu took me down some halls to the bending gym. "Alright its time you practice your Earthbending." he pointed to some bricks. "You can practice with those."

I picked up the bricks and threw them one by one. "Pretty good, but you should practice your technique." He walked up to me. "Copy my stance and dig deep into the earth."

I widened my legs, squatted down and pushed on the ground with my legs as hard as I could. This time when I threw bricks up, they lifted up and flew across the room much faster. I tried throwing some more bricks, but it was not as good. "You need to continue practicing." said Tetsu. "Then you will be able to throw them with consistency."

Suddenly Kuma barged into the room. "What are you doing?!" she shouted.

"I'm trying to teach Arata how to earthbend." Tetsu replied.

"I can see that." Kuma said. "But you're not tough enough with him. Let me take over."

Kuma walked slowly towards me with a stern frown. A massive pit formed in my stomach. This was not going to be good. "Get down on the ground and give me fifty push-downs."

"What is a push-down?"

"During these training sessions you will address me as ma'am, and you will not ask me pointless questions." Kuma shouted. "But is this case, your question is valid. Do do a push-down, you must get on the ground and push the ground down with your arms. Do you understand."

"Yes..ma'am."

"Alright, now get to it."

I got on the ground in a pushup position, and pushed on the ground as hard as I could. I made two square shaped holes in the floor of the gym. I pulled my arms up and the floor came up from the holes and it became level again. I was worn, out and this was my first rep.

I continued to push and pull at the floor, and every time to pain just got worse. After the exercise it was hard to stand up. "Alright that was a good workout." I gasped. "Are we done ma'am?"

"Not even close." Kuma replied. She made two massive walls beside us, and covered herself in rock. "This is an exercise my ancestor Toph used on Avatar Aang."

Kuma moved slowly but steadily towards me. I tried to shove her, but she would not budge. Kuma moved forward and shoved me across the room. "That was pathetic." Kuma complained.

Kuma repeated the exercise with me, and each time and was able to slow Kuma slightly more.

After a few more exercises Kuma took a sword off her belt. "Alright, I think you practiced enough Earthbending. Now you need to do some Metalbending."

"Since Metalbending is very difficult, you will do a basic exercise. " Kuma said as she pulled her sword out of its sheath. "I want you to hone my sword."

I looked closely at her sword. "Looks pretty sharp."

"Its needs to be sharper." Kuma said. "Watch this."

Kuma swiped her fingers over the blade. After comparing the section Kuma sharpened with the rest of the sword. It definitely looked dull and ragged in comparison. "Now you try." said Kuma.

I took the sword and put it on the ground. I pinched my fingers, held them over the blade, and gave a few swipes. The part I sharpened looked better than the rest of the sword, but not as pristine as where Kuma sharpened. "A decent start." Kuma remarked.

I squinted to get as close of a look at the sword as possible. I ran my fingers over the sword repeatedly, trying to get every little imperfection off the sword. I did the best I could, but I could not get it to look like the the part Kuma sharpened. "I think that's enough." Kuma said. Time to move on."

"What next ma'am." I said.

"Next lesson will be tougher." said Kuma as she pointed to some posts with coins on their tops. "I want you to try launching those coins. It was Toph's original training method."

Kuma pushed the posts to the middle of the room I lifted my arms up and pushed forward. The post shook, but the coin stayed on it. "Well this isn't going to be as hard as Toph teaching her recruits." Kuma remarked.

Kuma walked over to me and threw a coin across the room, and it embedded a pad on the wall. "Copy my stance." Kuma said.

I tried to copy Kuma motion, and I did somewhat better. The post shock a few more times, and the coin launched forward. Kuma nodded. "Your learning."

After throwing some more coins, Kuma moved to the other side of the posts. "This part will be tougher." Kuma said. "Get reading to launch the coins."

Before I could wonder what Kuma was doing she threw a coin at me. I felt a powerful stinging in my gut. I blocked the next coin, but I was hit by two more. I tried to fight back, but Kuma deflected the coin I threw and sent it back.

I struggled on taking in a rain of coins, desperately trying to get an attack in. Each time I threw a coin it Kuma dodged it, or threw it back at me.

Kuma lifted up a cluster of coins and spun them around, getting them ready to fly. I quickly threw a coin of my own hitting Kuma in the gut. Kuma put the coins down. "That was a good job. You are learning." Kuma admired. "Of course, in a real fight you need more than one hit."

"Thank you ma'm."

"I think we are done for the day."