Sokka, Toph, Katara and Mai sat in the front row of the private box with Aang, Zuko, Bumi, and Tenzin seated behind them to watch the final match of that season's pro-bending.
"I really don't think this is a good idea," Tenzin said hesitantly as he looked down at the rather daunting arena constructed up on stilts over a massive lake of water.
"Me neither, Son," Aang said with a hand on his son's back as they seated themselves.
"Don't worry about your little girlfriend! If she can whoop all of our asses I'm sure she can beat a couple of street rats from the slums of cities all around the world!" Bumi reassured his little brother with a mouth full of fire flakes.
"I know, they're all just- so much bigger than her. Not to mention she's under age," Tenzin said thinking about his little eleven-year-old best friend.
"The refs are not going to say anything about her age. The Moon Badgers have played fairly since the beginning even with Izumi having an in with the game maker. Besides, if the older teens can't beat a kid as tiny as Little Linny then they should be ashamed," Mai informed them.
Just in time, the lights above the seats and in the private boxes went down and the spotlights pointing at one side of the arena turned on.
"Tonight, the final two teams will face off in your third annual PRO BENDING CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES! First up, your two-time reigning champs, the Flaming Moon Badgers and their challengers, newcomers this year, the Harbor Town Hog Monkeys! And they begin with the sound of the bell!" Shiro Shinobi said announcing the two teams as they rode a moving platform onto the arena.
Miku opens a massive fire on Ziyuan who blocked it right down the middle pushing some of the flames into her teammate accidentally.
"Ahhhh!" Kya fell, flames burning through the leg of her grey uniform and singing the end of her green belt.
Lin looked shocked by Izumi's mistake. Usually the Crown Princess was much more controlled than this.
"Kya!" Lin called.
"Don't worry!" Kya replied bending a ring of water around herself as a barrier as she quickly put out the flame with a secondary stream, taking a third to heal the burn enough to be able to get up and fight again.
Lin went after the fire bender, Miku, while Izumi moved to challenge the hog monkey water and earth bender until Kya could rejoin them.
"Wow! That was the fastest healing I have ever seen, and by a seventeen year old! These Moon Badger's must be prodigies!" Shiro Shinobi shouted in disbelief as he watched Lin and Izumi fight while their team mate sat on the ground of the arena healing her own leg while sustaining a water doughnut around herself for protection.
Lin jumped up bringing a disk with her, tucked into a triple flip and kicked a disk straight down at the Hog Monkey earthbender sending her back into zone two. Izumi sent two curved blasts. The first knocked the hog monkey waterbender to off her feet and the other struck her stomach and sent her also back to zone two.
Kya jumped up again dropping her doughnut with a splash then did a double twist before sending a short hose towards the last hog monkey in zone one sending her all the way off the back of the arena and into the drain.
With a ring of a bell, the Moon Badgers advanced into enemy territory.
"Moon badgers advance into enemy territory with two on one with Miku in the drain! Ziyuan and Lina send a barrage of attacks at the waterbender, Kimiko while Kayama blasts earthbender, Rita, with water!" Shiro Shiobi announced. "Rita escapes Kayama and rushes to Kimiko's defense. Lina ducks, Ziyuan jumps off of her back and throws a dragon kick. Rita blocks with an earthen disk and both hog monkeys girls are in the drain!" Shiro Shinobi commentated.
"Knockout in the first round?" Lin asked standing up stretching her arms up behind her back, circling them fully with a crack of her shoulders.
" WAIT! WAT A MINUTE! The hog monkeys are holding up!" Shiro Shinobi yelled as it became apparent that Rita had grabbed onto the ledge of the arena and was holding her team mate, Kimiko up by one hand.
Rita flung Kimiko onto the arena who knocked over an unsuspecting Lin from behind just before the bell rang ending the round.
"AND THE HARBOR TOWN NATIVES LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER ROUND!" Shiro Shinobi yelled enthusiastically. "ROUND 2 will start after the commercial break."
"I'M GOING TO BURY THEM IN A ROCK-A-LANCHE!" Lin growled lifting two earthen disks just to smash them together and reduce them to sand in her little fit of rage and anger as Izumi patted her on the back and Kya bent the water from her uniform.
"THAT'S MY GIRL!" Toph yelled from the stands. "SHOW-EM WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MESS WITH FLYING BOAR!"
"You can hear her from all the way over here?" Katara asked wide eyed and curious.
"She's my baby. I can hear her gentle breathing while she sleeps all the way from Gaoling," Toph replied with a satisfied smile as she watched the event with her eyes closed and one foot on the ground and the other crossed over her knee, her arms folded happily.
"Your skills of perception are frightening," Sokka said flatly.
"Thanks, Snoozles," Toph replied elbowing him playfully.
"That water bender, Kimiko could have hurt Lin when she wasn't looking! DAD do something!" Tenzin begged shaking his father's arm.
"Will you relax, Baby Baldy? I swear to Oma, you fret more than your dear Mother, Sugar Queen over here, did when she was in her teens!" Toph groaned at Tenzin.
"Sorry," Tenzin said sadly. Aang patted him on the back.
"Don't worry about Lin and the others. Your Mother, Uncle Zuko, and Aunt Toph helped them train before the match. They're ready," Aang said hopefully though Tenzin could tell his father was lying by the way his eyes glistened with worry.
"HEY! I HELPED TOO!" Sokka yelled at Aang.
"You just rang the gong and gave distracting commentary, Sokka. That doesn't help anything." Mai sighed from the other end of the front row of the private box.
"At least it's something! You just sat there and watched!" Sokka replied.
"And funded the construction of this arena and the founding of the game," Mai replied looking down at her burgundy painted nails and darts strapped to her wrists that needed sharpening.
Sokka sighed.
"Don't get yourself down, Snoozles. The games starting again," Toph said with a hard punch to his arms.
"Ow! Can you remember to retract the steel knuckles of your gauntlets before you punch me?" Sokka asked rubbing his arm.
"Sorry, here. Let me try again," Toph said retracting the metal glove, punching her lover again, but this time four times harder, knocking him off his seat and onto the floor as Katara and Bumi burst out laughing while Zuko, Mai and Aang frowned disapprovingly and Tenzin's brows furrowed with worry.
"You did kind of ask for it, brother," Katara sighed wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
"Wow! Even when you're happy, you're tearbending," Toph said to Katara clicking her tong and shaking her head. "Now EVERYONE, SHUT UP! The bell just rang!"
"The Moon Badgers begin with an acrobatic display of bending. It appears Lina has been lost in a cloud of smoke and water. The hog monkeys look just as confused as I am. And a disc ricochets off the side and knocks Kimiko off her feet and Kayama sends her into the-Wait a minute! Kimiko saves herself with a water whip from the trough in the third zone. She is still in the game. Miku unleashes a heavy fire on Ziyuan which should illicit a foul oooooorrrr maybe not..." Shiro Shinobi announced.
"What gives refs?" Izumi asked shooting them daggers with her sharp side glance.
They said nothing but urged the continuation of the game.
"If they're going to play dirty, I will too!" Lin said bending up two disks at once. Kya jumped on one of Lin's earth disks shoving it back into it's storage column with her weight.
"If they've been paid off, we have to win fair and square! It's the only way!" Kya yelled at her. "One disk at a time. You have your small size and high speed on your side. Use it!" Kya said elbow checking the young earth bender.
"Fine!" Lin growled kicking a disk at one of their opponents with enough force to knock her back to zone two.
Back at Air Temple Island, they had a celebratory dinner in honor of the Flaming Moon Badger's third win, and first one with Little Linny on the team.
"To the Flaming Moon Badgers! Who knew watching three of our own pummel kids into the ground for fun and become 'Pro-Bending Champions' would be so entertaining?!" Sokka asked with one leg on the table, raising a glass of kumquat rum with 3% cactus juice for a toast at the family dinner as everyone except Mai and Zuko laughed.
"I never doubted!" Toph replied proudly with one arm around seven-year-old Suyin squirming in her lap, and the other drapped over Lin's shoulder beaming.
On Lin's other side, Tenzin sat holding her hand tightly as if she would disappear if he let go.
"What's wrong, Baldy?" Lin asked turning to him with a sickeningly sweet tone of concern.
"I was worried about you!"
"Don't be! I can handle a couple of dumb teens. Thanks to you, I got to grow up sparing Kya and Bumi, the ultimate dumb of the dumb teens!" Lin said making Tenzin laugh.
"Hey! I heard that!" Bumi yelled throwing a peble at Lin that she bent right back at him striking him in the forehead leaving a cut and a bruise for Katara to heal for him.
"HEY! MOM! I THOUGHT YOU SAID NO BENDING AT THE TABLE! IT'S NOT FAIR!" Bumi cried to Katara.
"Shhhhh... It's alright Bumi. It's just Linny. She won't do anything to you that I can't fix," Katara said.
"I love you, girly." Toph said with a smile ruffling Lin's hair as she looked up happily.
"Awwww, Izumi, do you HAVE to go back to the Fire Nation tomorrow?" Kya asked sadly holding both of Izumi's hands, the two girls standing closer to each other than society would have preferred.
"I'm sorry, but I have a duty to my people. I turn eighteen this year and become of marrying age and if I don't find somebody to help me produce heirs, the Fire Sages will choose for me. I have to go," Izumi replied.
"Will you be back in time for the next season of pro-bending?"
"I hope so," Izumi said hugging her best friend tightly, not wanting to let go.