"What's the big idea making me train so early in the morning?" Korra whined as she, Mako, and Bolin tossed a ball to each other in the Pro-bending gym, a day after the match Korra won for them. "The morning is evil…" She whispered with a deranged look.
"What I'd like to know, is why the fuck I'm here so early in the morning!?" A voice suddenly cried. The three Pro-benders turned and saw their favourite Metalbender sitting in one of the corners, hugging his legs to his chest. "It's not noon… I never get up before noon… what would Mistress Ikki say? She'll be so disappointed…" He murmured like a crazy person, rocking back and forth like someone who should be in mental ward.
"What's up with him?" Mako asked in confusion.
"Ikki got ahold of him last night." Korra sighed. "Poor guy's been traumatised since then." She gave the Metalbender a sympathetic look. "As adorable as she is, she's terrifying." She shuddered slightly.
"And he's here because…?" Bolin trailed off, waiting for an answer. He loves having his old friend around, but why would Alex be at the Pro-bending gym at this time?
"Tenzin wants me to be supervised at all times." Korra sighed in heavy exasperation. "And Alex has been assigned to do just that by Chief Moody McGrouch." She snarked with a roll of her eyes. "They both think I can't go into the city without an escort." She growled defensively. She looked confused when Mako snickered at her words. Was there some sort of pun there?
"Ah." Bolin nodded as Korra tossed the ball to him. "Anyway, answering your question, as the rookies, we get the worst time slot in the gym." he sighed, tossing the ball to Mako.
"And you're the rookiest of us all. We gotta get you up to speed if we want to survive in the tournament." The Firebender added, tossing the ball to Korra. "Deal with it." he said.
"You deal with it." Korra shot back, throwing the ball into his stomach, making him fall over. Alex managed a small laugh in the corner, though he still looked traumatised by whatever Ikki did to him.
"There are my little hardworking little street urchins!" The door suddenly burst open, revealing a man in around his forties wearing fancy, though not necessarily good, clothes. He approached the Fire Ferrets with a wide smile and placed a hand on Korra's shoulder. "It's an honor to finally meet you Avatar." he said with a polite smile.
"And you are?" Korra asked.
"Butaka." the man introduced himself. "I run this whole Pro-bending shebang." He took off his hat and bowed in greeting and respect to the Avatar. "Here are your winnings from the last match." He said to Mako, who grinned as a giant stack of yuans was placed his hand. He was about to pocket it, but Butaka stopped him. "Not so fast." He said. "First you owe me for the Avatar's new gear." he took the appropriate amount from the stack. "Gym and equipment rental last month." He took a little more. "Rent on your apartment." A little more. "And the personal loan for groceries." He took the last of the stack, making Mako glare at his younger brother.
"What? I'm a growing boy." Bolin defended, patting his stomach.
"Oh, one more small business detail." Butaka spoke up again. "The Fire-Ferrets need to cough up 30 000 yuans for the Championship Pot." he told them.
"30,000 yuans!?" Bolin yelled in shock.
"Sorry kids." Butaka apologised. "You got till the end of the week to come up with the dough, or your out of the tournament." the man said regretfully, taking his leave.
"30k? That's some serious cash." Alex said, having finally snapped out of his stupor.
"You wouldn't happen to have a secret Avatar bank account overflowing with gold, would you?" Bolin asked Korra hopefully.
"I got nothing." Korra replied, showing her empty pockets. "I never really needed money." she shrugged. "I've always had people taking care of me." She said with a smile, which turned into a frown as Alex facepalmed.
"Then I wouldn't say you've had nothing." Mako muttered bitterly, putting the training ball and packing it into a sports bag. Korra's eyes widened in realisation as she realised what she had said.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to..." she trailed off, not quite knowing what to say.
"No, it's alright." Bolin smiled sadly. "It's just that, ever since we lost our parents we've been on our own." His shoulders dropped in sadness. One of the few things that could drop Bolin's cheery attitude was remembering what he and his big brother went through in their childhood.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know." The Avatar said in regret.
"So anyways, how are we supposed to get the 30,000 yuans before the tournament?" Mako asked, hoping someone had an idea.
"Geez, if it was two weeks ago, I could have lent it to you." Alex shook his head. "I'd managed to save up 120k for my condo, which I bought two weeks ago." he sighed. The Fire Ferrets sighed as well.
"Oh, I got it!" Bolin suddenly perked up, kneeling and picking up his furry friend Pabu, the Fire Ferret the team is named for. "We have Pabu perform circus tricks! People would pay good money to see that!" he said excitedly.
"We need serious suggestions Boiln!" Mako said to his brother, clearly annoyed.
"But… I was serious…" Bolin deflated, looking hurt.
"One week isn't enough time Bolin." Alex shook his head. "You might be able to gather 30k in a few months, but a week? Not happening." he said. Bolin pouted heavily.
"Don't worry about it." Mako sighed. "I'll figure something out. I always do." He said, walking away.
"If you need any help, call me." Alex told him. Mako nodded with a grateful smile and continued on his way, whilst Bolin snuck out. "Well then, shall we head to the Air Temple and begin our lessons?" Alex asked the Avatar, who grinned excitedly and nodded.
As Alex and Korra headed towards the docks to Air Temple Island, they stopped by a couple of stores to see what they had to offer. Korra was really glad to have an escort so she wouldn't get lost. Again, she was confused when Alex snickered at her words. What was so funny?
Anyways, whilst they walked and talked together, Korra noticed a lot of women and girls, ranging from early teens to women in their 40s, where glaring at her, like she was some kind of politician who couldn't be touched for her crimes. At first, she was incredibly confused and consulted her friend as to why every woman was staring at her with anger. His response was a quick laugh and the fact that the women were jealous. Korra, being a little naive, didn't understand at first. She couldn't understand why they would be jealous.
"Wait.." She thought to herself before she gasped at the realization. She remembered Ikki saying that Alex had a reputation in Republic City for being not only a fantastic detective, but was also very popular with the women. There were married housewives/cougars that gossiped about leaving their husbands to try and sink their claws into him, and the less experienced teenage girls were always swapping ideas on how to seduce him themselves.
Korra suddenly blushed as that thought came to mind. As stated before, she'd never been in a relationship before, so she was still 'pure' in many regards. The thought of a relationship or human contact had never crossed her mind. Now that she realises what most of the women glaring at her for, she couldn't help her mind from wandering, imagining herself and Alex in throes of passion. She'd be straddling his waist, kissing him furiously as their hands explored each others bodies whilst she made like a motorcycle and rode his-
"You Ok Korra? You look a bit red." Alex pulled Korra from her thoughts as they stopped walking.
"I'm fine!" Korra yelped a little too loudly, her cheeks blazing as she realised just what she was thinking about mere seconds before. She prayed to the spirits the tingling sensation she felt down there would go away as soon as possible.
"Well, we're here at the docks…" Alex said in confusion. Korra could not get on the ferry fast enough, doing everything she could to avoid looking into Alex's eyes. She didn't notice the bit of drool that ran down her chin from the corner of her mouth until they had set foot on the island...
"Alright, this is what we'll start with." Alex said, tossing Korra a strange rock as they arrived in the training area of the Air Temple. The rock was about twice the size of her fist, and a strange, shiny black colour.
"It's so light." Korra observed, tossing the rock up and down a little.
"It's a meteorite." Alex explained. "It's perfect for beginning Metalbenders because it has a unique property that makes it easier to bend." He added, holding his hand up. The rock slowly floated up from Korra's hand and towards Alex, where it floated in front of him. He let his hands roam around the area the rock occupied before pulling hands apart a little, making the rock morph into the shape of a three dimensional star, and then a diamond, a splat, and back to its exact original form.
"That's amazing!" Korra gasped in awe. Alex smiled at her and tossed the rock back at her. As she caught it, Alex put his hands on his waist.
"Now you try." He smiled. "And listen to what I say as you try to bend." He added.
"Okay." Korra nodded, taking a deep breath. She hardened her stance a little, holding the rock in one hand, while the other hovered over the rock.
"Metal and Earth are not as separate as one would think." Alex explained whilst Korra focussed. "To put it in simple terms, Metal IS Earth, just purified, and refined." he continued. "But that doesn't make it unbendable. All metals have some form of impurities in them, some more than others. The more impurities, the easier is to bend." he went on. The rock twitched in Korra's hand, making Alex smile. "The key to Metalbending is to bend the impurities inside the metal. If you do, the rest of the metal will follow it. So, direct all of your focus to the fine pieces of Earth scattered within the Metal." He instructed. Korra took one more deep breath before she pulled her hand away from the rock. Lo and behold, the metal warped into a crude, misshapen bowl-like form.
"I can't believe it…" The Avatar gasped. "I'm Metalbending!" She smiled excitedly at Alex, who returned the smile.
"Great job Korra." Alex grinned, placing a hand on the Avatar's shoulder.
After a few hours of showing Korra the fundamentals of Metalbending, Alex decided it was time for a little test. He would tell her what to morph the meteorite into, and Korra would bend the space rock into what shape he said.
"Star." he instructed.
"A star. Here we go…" Korra murmured as she levitated the rock between er hands, morphing it into the shape of a star.
"Diamond." Korra morphed the rock. "Cylinder." The rock extended to about the length of one's forearm, and about as thick as a finger. "House." The Avatar bent the metal into a different shape. "Splat." She couldn't resist a faint giggle as she sculpted the splat shape. "Tree." This one a little more difficult, as a tree was much more intricate in the placement of it's branches, but she managed. "And back to the original." And with that, the rock was once again in the exact shape it was when Korra first saw it.
"And?" Korra asked, a hopeful tone in her voice as she looked to Alex for an answer as to how she did. For a few painstaking moments, Alex said nothing. But, then he smiled approvingly.
"Congratulations. You are now the first Metalbending Avatar." he said with a grin, which Korra returned excitedly.
"Thank you so much Alex." Korra squealed happily and hugged her Metalbending Master. "I never knew Metalbending was such an amazing experience!" She said in excitement, not noticing Alex blush as they separated.
Alex couldn't refute her words though. Metalbending truly did feel amazing when you performed the art. Reaching inside the metal and bending the impurities within it was a taxing task at the beginning, but feeling the Metal move along with the fine pieces of Earth within it? Korra compared it to bending a droplet of water and having a bathtub's worth of water follow it. And the sense of accomplishment afterwards was more than worth the effort.
Eventually, Alex and Korra moved on to bending more pure metals, like iron and steel. Both are by no means completely pure, but they both hold considerably less impurities than a meteorite, making them more difficult to bend. Alex explained to Korra how Platinum was absolutely impossible to bend because it has little to no impurities. All metals have them, as it's impossible to completely and utterly purify any metal 100%, but metals like Platinum and Gold have so few. It is possible to bend Gold, as it's not nearly as pure as Platinum, but it is very difficult. Both Alex and Lin struggle in that department.
Anyways, after confirming that Korra can indeed bend steel, Alex lent her one of his gauntlets that hold the blade and the zipline the Metalbending Police use. After showing the Avatar how to fasten the gauntlet onto her arm, the Detective declared it was time for a spar, which Korra eagerly agreed to. They were about to begin, when…
"Whatcha guys doin?!" A cheerful, peppy voice asked loudly. One that terrified Alex to no end.
"AAAAAH!" he screamed, quickly running over to Korra and hiding behind her, making the Airbender girls look at the pair in confusion as they approached.
"Ikki? Jinora? What are you two doing here?" Korra asked, ignoring the quivering form of Alex hiding behind her.
"We were taking a walk, and then we heard what sounded metalbending. We came to see." Jinora explained.
"Hi Alex!" Ikki waved at her favorite Metalbender, smiling sweetly the whole time.
"Get it away!" Alex cried, shivering like a naked man in the South Pole.
"Just WHAT did Ikki do to traumatize him so much?" Korra thought incredulously as she stared at the quivering man behind her.
After finally convincing Ikki and Jinora to hang back, waaaaaaay back, whilst Korra and Alex spared, the two faced each other, each readying the gauntlets they wore on their right arms. It was definitely a good thing that Alex's gauntlets could fit on either hand…
"On three?" the Metalbender asked with a smirk.
"On three." the Avatar agreed.
"One…"
"Two…"
"Three!"
Finishing the countdown in unison, the pair charged each other, bending the blades out of their gauntlets. In an instant, they'd clashed blades, pushing into each other for a split second before backflipping away.
Korra retracted the blade and shot the cable at her opponent, whipping at him like she'd seen him do the first time they'd spared. Seeing this coming, Alex rolled to the side, avoiding the steel cable and shooting his own at the Avatar, managing to latch it onto her ankle. Before she could react, Korra found herself on the ground, letting out a yelp as she fell.
"Have a nice trip Korra?" Alex quipped, grinning as the Avatar jumped back up to her feet. With a glare, she shot her cable at him once more, only for him to do the same, the cables colliding and warping into a knot. Wanting to get him like he got her, Korra thought quickly and grabbed the cable, intent on yanking her opponent towards her.
Sadly, she wasn't fast enough. Alex grabbed the cable himself, and whipped it down. Hard. The force travelled through the cable in a wave, straight towards the other end, which just so happened to be attached to Korra.
"Oh, sh-" She didn't get to finish her curse before she found herself flung into the air. As she soared towards a tree trunk, she was vaguely aware of Alex undoing the knot between the two cables, but collided with a tree face first to properly register it. She fell to the ground, landing on her back, her face bright red from the collision, and a Korra-face-shaped dent in the tree. "Ow." She said simply.
On the sidelines, Ikki and Jinora burst into laughter at the sight. Normally, they don't laugh at Korra's failures. However, this wasn't Airbending training, it was Metalbending. And Korra was taking these lessons from Alex out of a personal desire to Metalbend, not a necessity. As such, these lessons weren't as serious as the Airbending lessons, so they knew Korra wouldn't have much of a problem with them laughing. At least, not as much as she would if this was Airbending training.
"You know, if this whole Avatar thing doesn't work out, you could go into modeling!" Alex called out to her tauntingly. "You've already made an excellent mold in the tree! Imagine what you could make with clay?" He smirked as Korra got up, glaring at him with her face red in embarrassment.
Oh, it was on now.
"Bo, I'm back! Picked up your favorites dumplings!" Mako announced as he entered the apartment he and his brother shared. He was exhausted, having spent the entire day working, providing electricity at the Power Plant with his Lightning Generation skills.. "Hey, I got a job at the power plant. Made some decent money while I was at it." He added, falling into the couch. Yeah, lightning really takes it out of you.
"Bolin? You here, Bro?" Mako asked, noticing that he hadn't gotten a reply, which happened again after his last sentence. This was strange, as Bolin is usually home by this time. After looking out the window, Mako couldn't help smirking when he saw Air Temple Island. There's a good chance that's Bolin went."Looks like the little lovebird is making a house call." he observed.
"How's… that…?" Korra panted from her position on top of Alex, her blade at his throat and her other hand pinning his arms above his head.
"Great…" Alex too panted. This spare was rather taxing on both them. "Don't you think you should take me out to dinner first though?" he asked with a smirk. He'd been holding that one in for some time.
"Wha?" Korra asked, confused. However, when she heard the two young girls giggling on the sidelines, she noticed the current position she and her teacher were in, and knew exactly what he was implying. With a loud squeak of embarrassment, she jumped off of the Metalbender, who was grinning in amusement.
"Nicely done Korra." he complimented her. He'd predicted that she would make a good Metalbender, but he didn't think she'd get so good so soon. "You learnt faster than I'd expected." He added, dusting himself off.
"I think it's because she wants to impress you." Jinora spoke up teasingly, making Korra flush.
"Korra loves Alex! Korra loves Alex!" Ikki cheered, making the Detective flush alongside the Avatar.
"Cut it out you little brat!" Korra snapped, incredibly embarrassed.
"I know you are, but what am I?" Ikki returned with a cheeky grin, making Korra visibly tremble. Alex wisely took a step back.
"Oh, he's cute." Jinora suddenly said, her eyes focussed on an approaching figure, which Alex recognised as Mako. "Korra? Is that the handsome Firebender who drives you crazy?" She asked the Avatar curiously, making Ikki gasped in shock!
"No! Korra must love Al-" The younger Airbender was cut off by Korra and Alex Earthbending them away in perfect sync.
"Yo! Mako! What's up?" Alex asked, a faint blush on his face as he tried to forget the insinuations the girls had made just moments ago. He was also doing his best to ignore the girls giggling as they landed.
"Hey. What are you doing here?" The Firebender responded.
"He's teaching me Metalbending." Korra said with a grin, gesturing to the gauntlet she was wearing.
"Cool." Mako shrugged. "Either of you seen Bolin?" he asked. Straight to the point.
"Not since practice." Korra answered "Why?" She asked.
"Something wrong?" Alex asked worriedly.
"I don't know." Mako shook his head, an uneasy look on his face. "You know he has a knack for getting into stupid situations." He pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Yeah, that he does." Alex deadpanned.
"Well, if you need help looking…" Korra trailed off the offer.
"Don't worry about it." Mako waved her off, turning around. "I'll find him." he said, walking off.
"Mako." Alex called out with his hands on his hips. "Bolin's our friend too you know. Let us help." He said, turning to Korra. "Naga can track right?" he asked. Korra grinned widely and nodded.
"Who's Naga?" Mako asked in confusion.
"My best friend, and a great tracker." Korra crossed her arms with a smirk.
"Your best friend is... a polar bear dog…" Mako deadpanned as he, Alex, and Korra rode on the back of the massive beast through the city. "Somehow, that makes sense." He realised.
"Perfect sense." Alex chuckled with a shake of his head.
"I'll take that as a compliment, City Boys." Korra smirked at them.
The trio had been searching for Bolin for about half an hour since they left Air Temple Island. About 10 minutes previous, Naga picked up his scent, and they'd been following it since. Silently, Mako was really worrying about his brother, as was Alex. Korra wasn't as worried, since she didn't know the extent of how stupid the situations Bolin gets in. She did have some idea, given how Alex and Mako have reacted thus far, but it's clearly not enough.
"Oh no…" Alex groaned internally as Naga stopped in the City Square, right in front of the statue of Fire Lord Zuko that was spewing fire from the mouth and hands. There were also several food stands, street urchins, and tourists around the area. It was also a common place for the Triads to meet up… Fantastic…
"This is his usual hangout." Mako observed as the trio dismounted Naga. They all looked around, but couldn't find any sign of the younger Earthbender.
"Gimme a minute." Alex told them, lifting his foot up. Mako and Korra seemed confused for a moment before the soul of his boot slid open, revealing his foot. He then proceeded to slam his foot down, feeling the vibrations coursing through the ground, colliding with the vibrations of the people in the area. After a moment, he opened his eyes. "There are only three Earthbenders in the area. Two of them are women, the other is too small to be Bolin." he told his friends.
"How can you tell?" Korra asked in confusion. Mako was also somewhat confused. He knew Alex could use Seismic Sense, but this was weird…
"Different Benders have subtle differences in their footsteps." Alex explained, sliding the soul of his boot back up. "Airbenders barely skim the ground, Waterbenders are smooth and flowing, Earthbenders are hard and straight, and Firebenders are repetitive, patterned." he said.
"Wow." Korra said, impressed. Maybe she should invest some time in learning the Seismic Sense… Suddenly, it occurred to her that for the Avatar, she has surprisingly little mastery over the subset skills of the elements.
"Still, Bolin's not her though, right?" Mako asked with a sigh.
"Unfortunately not." Alex shook his head. "But I know someone who is." He walked off, telling the other two to follow. As they walked, the trio came across a group of children playing. One articular child was rather familiar to Alex. "Skoochy!" he called out. One of the children, a street urchin with relatively old, but not bad condition, clothes heard the call and turned to face Alex,a wide and evil grin splitting his face.
"Detective Beifong." The boy, named Skoochy apparently, crossed his arms as he came up to the trio. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked with a smirk, making the Detective sigh.
"Guys, this Skoochy, one of my CI's." He introduced, shaking his head as he pulled out a 50 Yuan note. "You seen Bolin of the Fire Ferrets? He's missing." He told the street urchin, who happily eyed the money.
"Yeah, I've seen him." he answered, making Alex give him the money.
"When? And what was he doing?" The Detective asked, crossing his arms.
"Around noon." Skoochy shrugged. "He was performing some kind of monkey-rat circus, and then…" he trailed off, raising his eyebrow expectantly.
"You're one to talk about rats." Alex scoffed, pulling out another 50 Yuan note. "Then what?" he asked, not giving the boy the cash yet.
"Fine." Skoochy scowled. "Shady Shin showed up and flashed some serious cash." He whispered after leaning in close. Alex and Mako's eyes widened at the mention of Shady Shin, one the most notorious recruiters of the Triple Threat Triads, as well as a powerful Waterbender.
"Tell me he didn't…" Alex pleaded softly, his head hanging.
"He did." Skoochy confirmed. "Bolin took of with him in his hot rod." he quickly pocketed the cash as Alex gave it to him. "The Triple Threats, the Red Monsoons, the Agni Kais… All of the Triads are muscling up for something real big." he said, still whispering.
"Any idea what?" Alex asked.
"Nu uh! That's all you're getting out of me for today!" Skoochy said a little fearfully, making Alex sigh as he ran off.
"What's going on?" Korra asked unsurely, not sure what to make of what had been said.
"Looks like a Turf War's brewing, and Bolin's about to get caught in the middle of it." Mako glared at the ground.
"If he's not already." Alex clenched his fist. "Mako?"
"Yeah?"
"When we find your brother, I'm giving him a black eye."
"No objections here."
"Good."
"Just save his jaw for me."
"Deal."
Korra couldn't help but give the two boys a weary glance at the exchange they just had. She just HAD to make friends with really weird guys, didn't she? Well, she doesn't regret it, so what's the worst that could happen?
If only she knew…
And another one bites the dust! What do you think? Was it a good idea to give Korra the Metalbending early? And what about the innuendos scattered throughout the chapter? I'm especially proud of those. XP
Ok, I need your opinions on something; can an Earthbender bend bones? Bones are mostly made of Calcium, which is an Alkaline Earth metal. And it's not as pure as something like Gold or Platinum. So, theoretically, it should be possible. Tell me what you think in your reviews.
I'm thinking of having Alex develop a technique that instantly breaks the victim's bone. Or maybe just fractures it because bone isn't completely bendable? I don't know.
Lastly, don't expect back to back updates like this too often. I'm still looking for work, which is a NIGHTMARE, and it's taking up a lot of my time. I mean seriously, everything requires this amount of experience, or that degree/diploma. How is ANYONE supposed to get a job when everything requires experience and diplomas?
Sorry, rambling with my writing. :P
Please review!