Faraday rode quickly into Volcano Springs, closely followed by Teddy Q. Why Sam had paired him up with him was a mystery, but when Faraday had gone to say something Sam had just raised his eyebrow at him and muttered "horse" under his breath.
Tying up both horses to the hitching post outside the saloon, Faraday looked around the town. He saw a large group of men over by the corral, so he started to walk over, Teddy following slowly behind him.
Faraday watched impressed as Billy Rocks won the duel with nothing but a hairpin and his own fast reflexes, and was glad when Sam's name got him an audience with Goodnight Robicheaux.
"Now I'm a water bender myself," Said Robicheaux before Faraday or Teddy could ask him, "and my good friend Billy here is an Air bender."
"What! I thought that most of the Air benders were extinct or at the very least really rare. I don't know anyone who has ever even met one, I certainly haven't." Teddy had an impressed look on his face that hadn't been there a second ago.
"Well there are still a handful around if you know where to look." Robicheaux replied slyly.
Faraday listened to the conversation in silence, as he glanced towards Billy. He had never met another Air bender, rumour had it that a few years before Faraday was born some benders from the other three groups had set out to destroy the Air benders, because they had known that the Avatar would be born into that group and they thought that he would make them more powerful than their own group.
"So what about you two, any powers to speak of?" Faraday didn't like the way that Robicheaux was looking at him when he asked that question, as if he knew somehow that Faraday did have a power.
"Well I'm a water bender Mr Robicheaux." Said Teddy politely as they all turned to look in Faraday's direction.
"Nope none to speak of. Just plain little old me." Faraday joked nervously still eying Robicheaux warily.
Robicheaux looked at him for a few more seconds as if trying to decide whether or not he should call him out on it, when he shrugged his shoulders and turned to look towards Billy.
"What say you Mon Cher shall we go with them?"
Billy turned to look at both of them and Faraday had the distinct impression that Billy was assessing them. Whatever he found, he seemed to agree with as he inclined his head slightly.
"Excellent, now how about a drink?" said Robicheaux happily.
"I was thinking more like how about two." Replied Faraday.
Faraday was immediately on alert when they entered the campsite that Sam had told them to meet him at.
Sam waited until they had hitched their horses before he introduced them to the newcomer.
"This is Vasquez. He has agreed to help us. He's a Fire bender as well." Said Sam.
"Oh good we've got ourselves a Mexican." Responded Faraday glibly.
He watched as Sam pulled Vasquez away before anything more could happen, but he was sure that he caught a trace of amusement for him.
It was sometime later when Sam, Goodnight and Billy had come back with a freshly killed buck and they were all sat around the campfire to eat, that Faraday found himself sat next to Vasquez.
"So guero, what is it that you do?" asked Vasquez.
"What do you mean?" asked Faraday pretending that he did not understand his meaning.
"What sort of bending power do you have?"
Faraday coughed and glanced around the campfire, all of the others were engaged in their own conversations, everyone that was, except for Goodnight, who was watching the two of them rather intently.
"I don't have any bending powers Mr Vasquez." Said Faraday as he quickly averted his eyes away from Goodnight.
"That is strange no?" Vasquez raised his eyebrow at him as he turned to face him more fully.
"It isn't unheard of. People in the big cities never develop any." Fararday snapped at him, a little defensive.
"I meant no disrespect Guero, I have never met someone out here with no powers is all." Said Vasquez holding his hands up in a placating gesture.
"Yeah well, you know nothing about it." Before Vasquez could say anymore, Faraday stood up quickly and made his way over to his bedroll before he led down and went to sleep.
The next stop on their journey was to collect Jack Horne and to say that he was strange was putting it mildly. He killed the Pidgeon brothers swiftly and without mercy, and Faraday supposed he could relate to that. After all, if someone had hit him over the head and he'd fallen down a cliff, he would be a mite angry as well.
He was relieved when Horne turned them down and trudged back the way he came, leading his horse behind him.
"I do believe that bear was wearing people's clothes" Faraday joked.
Sam seemed a little put out by Horne's refusal to join them.
"He's an extremely gifted Water bender, would have been good to have him on our side." He said wistfully.
Camping out in Indian Territory was not Faraday's idea of a good time, but he was perhaps the calmest of all of them, because he knew that he could take anything that attacked them. Morning came quickly and with it the sense of danger. Faraday watched as Horne scrambled up over the rock just as Red Harvest rode in to view. Everybody tensed, Goodnight's warning that where there was one there was usually more making them all weary.
Sam strode forward, handing his gun off to Vasquez as he walked passed. Apparently he spoke Comanche as the Indian dropped his kill onto the floor and cut out his liver. He passed it to Sam who took a bite and passed it back. Faraday assumed that meant they were all friends as Sam walked back to them scrubbing his hands with the sand to get the blood off them.
"His name is Red Harvest and he is an Earth bender. He's agreed to join us." Said Sam as most of them still watched Red wearily.
The trip back to Rose Creek was spent trying to determine how many Blackstone agents were in the town and if they had any bending powers. Apart from Bogue and his two associates, they soon began to realise that some of the Blackstone agents did indeed have powers. The seven of them quickly came up with a plan.
Sam went into the town first, with Billy walking beside him, because he said it made it easier for him to use his powers than if he was on his horse. It was easy to slip in while all the Blackstone agents were watching Sam and Billy. Red took to the roof while the rest of them spread out at ground level. Sam faced off against McCann, who whistled sharply for his sniper, when, after a few seconds nothing happened, Sam shouted and the sniper fell to the ground, one of Red's arrows sticking out of his back.
All at once like some sign had been passed between them, they attacked as one.
Sam shot out his hand and threw a ball of fire at the Blackstone agents and the Sheriff causing them to scatter.
Billy used his power to propel himself and occasionally his blades through the air.
Goodnight flung water at those who thought to escape around the back of the building.
Horne used a combination of his water bending and his axes to take down anyone foolish enough to get close to him
Red used his position on the building to shoot arrows into people, and when he ran out of arrows, he used his power to open up holes in the ground to catch them as they ran.
Vasquez shot fireball after fireball, never once missing his target.
Faraday shot straight up into the balcony at the men that thought they were safe up there. There was no way he was going to use his powers here, unless it was a life or death situation, and only if he couldn't use Ethel or Maria to get out of it.
Sam turned suddenly and blasted the man that was about to shot Faraday from his blind spot.
They kept fighting.
At one point Faraday found himself fighting back to back with Vasquez in the middle of the street. He could feel the intense power radiating through Vasquez as he hurled fireballs down the street. He never once missed. With a bump of shoulders they moved on.
It was about this point, when they had nearly won and Faraday was feeling rather cocky, that he made the biggest mistake of his life.
He had just shot the men who had tried to sneak up behind Goodnight, when he felt a tingling going up his spine.
"Oh no not now." Muttered Faraday under his breath, still shooting at any stragglers as they ran passed. He was still behind the building, but he was alone as Goodnight had ran off to go and help Billy.
He felt an intense heat in his hands as little bursts of fire shot from his fingers. He tried to quickly douse the flames with his water, but it had no effect. Not that he expected it to, it wouldn't make much sense for one of the Avatar's powers to be able to negate the others. He had to get back into the fight.
He stumbled around from behind the building and looked around for his people. He did a quick head count... he frowned as he only counted five, where was Vasquez? He searched quickly again and found him fighting against a Blackstone agent. He watched as the agent shot a jet of water at Vasquez, who quickly used his fire to get rid of it. The Blackstone used his distraction to send a ball of water at him, which hit him full force in the face and wrapped itself around his head causing Vasquez to choke and splutter. Vasquez hit the floor.
"No" shouted Faraday, as he moved quickly towards them, he knew he wasn't going to make it and nobody else was close enough to help. Making a split second decision he flung out his right hand and used his air bending power to blast the Blackstone agent up into the air and away from him. He flung out his left hand and threw his water power at him, or at least he tried to. Instead he somehow managed to throw a stream of fire at him while the agent was in mid- air. He screamed once and then went silent as his body thudded to the ground.
Vasquez suddenly drew in a lungful of air as the Blackstone agent's power died with him. Faraday quickly realised that the sounds of the battle had died down, and he raised his eyes up from where he had been watching Vasquez struggling to his feet.
Everybody that was left alive, and he was glad to see that all of the people he liked were, were all staring at him silently and with disbelieving looks on their faces, some even looked a little scared. The only one that didn't look at him differently was Goodnight. The expression on his face was smug, as if he had somehow guessed at Faraday's powers, and then went and orchestrated this little display so that he could be proven right.
Faraday watched as Sam approached him slowly.
"Sam I'm…" began Faraday quickly only to be cut off by a wave of Sam's hand.
"Not now, we'll talk about it later." Said Sam quietly so that the townsfolk, who were beginning to emerge from their houses now that the firefight had died down, didn't hear.
Faraday only half listened as Sam introduced himself and explained that Bogue would be back in less than a week and not the three that they had originally thought. Noticing that nobody was paying him any attention, Faraday turned silently and slipped away from the group.
"And where is it that you think you are going?" asked a Cajun voice loudly behind him.
Faraday spun around quickly and held out his hands, even though there were no weapons in them. When he saw Goodnight standing there with Billy next to him, he lowered them to rest on his holsters, as if he had meant to reach for his weapons first instead of his powers. Goodnight just raised his eyebrow as if he somehow knew that Faraday had meant to use powers first, a lazy smile on his face.
"I'm leaving, so don't even think to stop me." Said Faraday angrily as he turned back around to continue putting the saddle on Jack.
"I don't think we could even if we wanted to, right Cher." Goodnight apparently addressing this last part to Billy, as he hear a slight murmur behind him.
"Let me rephrase the question, why are you leaving?" said Goodnight, and Faraday jumped a little as his voice was a lot closer. He turned around to see them both standing well within his comfort zone.
"Are you kidding me Goodnight, you saw what happened back there." Said Faraday as he stepped around them. They were now between him and his horse, but at least he could have room to move if he needed to make a quick escape.
"I saw you save Vasquez." Said Goodnight simply, while Billy gave a tight nod behind him, apparently content to let Goodnight do the talking.
"Yeah with powers I told everyone I didn't have." Faraday slowly ran his hand down his face, felling tired all of a sudden.
"Yeah well not everyone believed that." Goodnight said slowly.
Faraday removed his hand, "What are you talking about?" he asked suspiciously.
"Well Sam and I thought there was something different about you, but we couldn't quite place it, and of course I told Billy. But when Sam told us about the doe and the bullet wound we started to suspect you had powers. We just thought that you didn't trust us enough to tell us, but now we know the real reason, you're the Avatar." Goodnight said.
Faraday felt himself go cold at that, "No I'm not, you don't know anything."
"Everybody saw you attack the Blackstone agent with Air and Fire powers, not everybody has two powers and especially not those two." Said Goodnight thoughtfully. He paused before he added, "Did you just get your fire powers now?"
Up until that moment Faraday had forgotten all about his new powers, but as soon as Goodnight called attention to it again, he felt that familiar tingling up his spine. He grunted as he felt his hand start to heat up.
"Get away from me, move back as far as you can." Faraday panted. He watched as Billy grabbed Goodnight's arm and started to pull him backwards.
Faraday fell down onto one knee as he felt like he was being consumed in fire. He shouted out as the fire started to shoot out of his fingers. He felt running footsteps through the earth as people ran over to the building where he had tied up his horse and he could hear more voices talking to Goodnight and Billy, but he couldn't make out what they were saying.
The fire continued to roar out of him until he felt like he was going to explode. He screamed out a warning for everyone to move away, when suddenly powerful jets of water blasted him from two sides, dousing the flames. He fell forward onto his stomach as a pair of hands touched his back.
"Oh guero." He heard before he fell unconscious.