Author's Note: Hello again! Finals are finally over! XD Sorry, bad pun. Here's the next chapter! ;) As mentioned earlier, it's six months later.

Bad chapter; I'm warning you right now. :P I wrote it in fifteen minutes. OC warning up ahead. Akana is mine, but she won't play a big part in this story, no matter what it is made out to be in this chapter.

ii.

targets locked

"...We have just gotten word from the United Republic Council that they have voted to keep the pro-bending arena open, despite the warning put forward by the leader of the Equalists, Amon. It is on the condition that Chief Lin Beifong of the Metalbending Police Department will provide extra security for the spectators and the pro-benders battling it out in the finals, and it's hard to argue with Chief Beifong's track record. The Council assures the public that everything will be fine, and there is absolutely nothing to fear from the Equalists; the arena will be as safe as it will ever be..."

A baleful smile tugs at the corner of her lips, and she idly thumbs the radio down, propping her feet up on the table.

Sneering, she mockingly mimics the radio broadcaster. "'The Council assures the public that everything will be fine, and there is absolutely nothing to fear from the Equalists'...ha!" Korra smirks, punching Teo in the shoulder.

"They can believe what they want, but they are the fools in the end," he agrees.

The Lieutenant frowns at their laid-back attitude and grunts as a response. "Sato's gloves have arrived, haven't they?"

"Evidently, they have; otherwise, our esteemed leader wouldn't be overseeing their packaging," Korra calmly replies, lazily hopping to her feet. "The police force...the electricity should deal double the damage to them, with all that conduction through the armor going on, yeah?"

The Lieutenant nods expressionlessly, his drooping pencil mustache bobbing up and down with the movement of his head. "Wouldn't you want to tell Amon?"

She shrugs indifferently. "I'm game." Trotting out of the room, she heads into the corridor, sliding past Equalists staggering under piles upon piles of cardboard boxes and up several staircases until she reaches a small balcony overlooking a large factory ground.

"Hey! The Council's keeping the arena open," she calls to the cloaked figure standing at the very edge of the ledge. "They ignored your warning."

"Excellent." The voice is low and smooth, with a charismatic tone woven through it. "All goes according to plan. And, I take it that you will carry out your part without a fault?"

"Right..."

A slightly sarcastic note enters Korra's voice, and she brushes out of the balcony and down the stairs, tucking a helmet with green goggles snugly underneath her arm, and the words float over her shoulder. "You can count on it." She waves to her partner. "Hey, Teo, come on; we're going!"

"On it!" They both happily bounce down the stairs, chattering like mad.

Lieu simply rolls his eyes after them.

They pick their way through the streets, their heads bowed as they keep a low profile, keeping to themselves, brushing past utterly oblivious Republic City citizens.

It is absolutely pathetic. It's expected. The whole rotten lot of them, these benders, are. Undeniably. Pathetic. Waving their arms and producing little bursts of flame, raising blocks of earth, streams of water, and the rare puff of wind, and they think that they're at the top of the world.

Korra frowns at the mere thought of it. Don't they get that bending brings nothing but pain and misfortune? Amon told her that her own mother died at the hands of a firebender. The Hundred Year's War was started by benders. Benders practically wiped out a quarter of their own kind; the Air Nomads. And yet, it's still benders this, benders that, benders are so much better than you ordinary idiots, benders, benders, benders, and more goddamn benders...

Spirits, she hates the very word.

Damn it. Conceited idiots.

Then again, there are those other memories that tell her otherwise. Fuzzy, but there and discernible. Like that one with the old lady waterbending. That's the clearest.

And she's never told anyone about this before. After all, who would believe her? A high-profile member of the Equalists, dreaming about bending? Unthinkable!

"Hey." Teo nudges her with his arm, his green eyes looking at her with concern in them. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she thoughtfully answers. "Just...thinking."

She keeps her dark thoughts to herself, and they slip past a stand selling cabbages, slithering past people with muttered "Excuse me"s, and rounds a corner, turning onto the street that leads to the pro-bending arena, but Korra instantly smashes her face into someone's rib cage.

"Ow!" She stumbles back into Teo, rubbing her nose and furiously glaring at the young adult; a guy in a green tunic. Lively and happy green eyes. A squashed-tomato nose. Wide grin. Some sort of reddish-brown fluffy animal sitting on his shoulder.

"I'm so sorry!" the guy exclaims, righting her. "I wasn't watching where I was going!"

Evidently, you weren't. Korra plasters a fake smile on her face and attempts to brighten her thoroughly annoyed disposition. "Oh, uh, it's okay. No harm done."

The guy awkwardly scratches the back of his neck, sending his fire ferret scampering down his tunic, where its white-and-red head pokes up innocently from his shirt collar, its expression fresh and innocent. "Yeah, well..." He smiles and sticks out a hand. "The name's Bolin. What're yours?"

"I'm Teo, and she's Korra."

"You two new to the city?"

Teo stifles a snort behind her back, and Korra shoots a dirty glare at him before turning back to Bolin with a sunny smile on her face.

Korra loosely grasps the proffered hand. "Sort of; I just wanted to take a look at the—"

Bolin interrupts her. "I could show you guys around the city, if you want!" he immediately offers. "I mean, the competition doesn't start until seven, and I'm sure that Mako and Akana wouldn't mind me being a little late for training."

Korra blinks in alarm. How in Koh's realm does one get from an apology to offering to be a tour guide in the span of less than thirty seconds?

"Nah," Teo jumps in. "It's okay." He winds his arm around Korra's. "We've gotta get somewhere—"

Korra stomps on his foot as she quickly cuts in, directing the conversation towards another angle. "Competition?" She hesitates for a moment and cautiously ventures, "Like, the pro-bending finals?"

"Oh, yeah!" Bolin chatters away without a care in the world, not noticing Teo's eyes narrow in distaste. "I'm the earthbender for the Fire Ferrets; we're playing the Wolfbats tonight! I could get you a pass if you want..."

Korra glances to the side and notes a dirty smile creeping up the corner of Teo's lips, but he keeps his calm demeanor.

"Actually, on second thought," Teo muses, "that would be awesome."

Bolin's face lights up. "Really?" he babbles onward. "That's great! Uh, I could bring you guys to the gym right now, if you want!" His look is so hopeful and innocent that Korra can't help but grin to accept his offer, although she knows that the smile isn't entirely nice.

"Great," Teo answers for her, gesturing to him. "Lead the way, Bolin."

The earthbender happily bounces ahead, and Teo nudges Korra as they race after him, softly whispering to her. "Number one?"

Korra nods, a grim smile mirroring the one on Teo's face. "Definitely."

Bolin leads them around winding streets, expertly maneuvering around the city as if he knew it like the back of his hand. Korra and Teo wander after him, occasionally bumping into people, and when they finally reach the glittering, azure waterfront that is Yue Bay, Bolin nods at the large yellow arena sitting at the edge of the water; a metal, monstrous sitting turtle duck.

"That's the pro-bending arena. Basically, pro-bending is a sport in Republic City where teams of three benders face off against each other. Each team has three benders: a firebender, a waterbender, and an earthbender. There aren't any airbenders, because there are only four living airbenders in the world: Master Tenzin and his three children."

Korra nods as if this is news. "So...the inside?" she pushes.

"Right!" Bolin sticks a finger up in the air, and the fire ferret sitting on his shoulder stretches and lets out a stream of small, chittering squeaks before curling around the earthbender's neck again like a ridiculously fluffy red-orange scarf. "To the gym!"

He leads them into the arena, still jabbering away, and Korra surreptitiously slips a small disk to Teo, who hangs back to attach the inconspicuous tan thing to the side of the wall.

"...and we're facing the Tigerdillos in our next match, so Mako has us training down the second. It's sheer luck that we got this time in the gym for once; usually, we're shunted with early morning slots, because we're the newest team," Bolin is saying. "Anyways; here we are!" He grins proudly, yanking the door open to reveal—

—a scowling, tall, black-haired guy with the fiery amber eyes of a classic Fire Nation member.

Korra's own eyes narrow into hateful slits at the sight of him. Firebender...

"—waiting for you for the past ten minutes, Bo!" he is snapping at the poor earthbender, who is poking his index fingers together, looking very chastised.

"Oh, come on, Mako, lay off," a lilting voice butts in. A girl prances into view, her tied-up, long black hair swinging behind her like a tail. "It's only ten minutes." Her blue eyes and dark skin mark her with roots from the Water Tribes, and she perks up as she catches sight of Korra and Teo. "Hey, look; Bolin's brought some fans!"

Teo clears his throat as Korra nervously laughs. "Er, we're not fans. Just...um, new to the city. You know, coming to visit and all that jazz...Bolin offered to tour us."

The firebender rolls his eyes. "Oh, right; waste another forty minutes while you're at it," he mutters, turning around with an impudent huff.

Teo raises an eyebrow at the firebender's retreating back. "What's up with him?"

The Water Tribe girl waves it off easily. "Ah; Mako's always uptight like that—"

"Hey!"

"—you know, being Mister Hat Trick and all—"

"Akana."

"—and he has a gigantic ego to boot—"

"Akana, are you going to come over here and train with me or not?!"

"Nope!" Akana grins, grasping Korra's hand without her permission. "Anyways, my name's Akana! I'm from the Southern Water Tribe." She tilts her head. "Hey; you look familiar."

"...I do?" Korra giggles nervously, something that she's done maybe never in her lifetime, but something about the girl tugs at her mind, and she can't get it out of her head.

"Yeah." Akana studies her for another moment, and then waves it off. "Whatever; people from the Water Tribes often look similar in that way. You are from the Water Tribes, right?" She pokes at Korra's arm.

"...Er, yeah."

"Yeah, anyways, Akana's our waterbender!" Bolin adds. "She joined after Hasook left our team. He and Mako had a huge fallout at the end of our last match, and Akana was a huge fan and a great waterbender, anyways, so, here she is!"

"Wow; that's hard to believe," Teo sarcastically says. "I mean, the argument part. Not, you know, you." He lamely gestures at the waterbender, and Korra has to stifle a snort of derision.

"Is someone in loooooove?" she sneers softly, elbowing her partner in the chest. He gives her a glare that tells her to knock it off.

"Bolin, Akana. Over here, now!" Mako's irritated voice rings over the air.

"Okay, okay, coming!" Akana yelps, making a beeline towards the center of the gym. Bolin hangs back for a moment. "Catch us at the game tonight?" he pleads.

Korra and Teo exchange a glance, and Teo turns around, nodding. "Yeah. Definitely."

"Great!" Bolin grins. "See you guys there!"

"BOLIN!"

The earthbender scurries towards his teammates as Korra and Teo inch out of the gym, breaking out into a run as they reach the stairwell.

"Did you put the recorder on?" Korra mutters to him as they tear out of the arena.

He nods. "Done."

Korra breaks out into a startlingly stupid grin. "Oh, spirits; what do you think Lieu will say when he realizes that we've been invited to a pro-bending match?"

Teo shrugs, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Something like, 'You two are a disgrace to the Equalists'."

"You are so bad at making punch lines."

"I know. That's why I have you."

Korra kicks him in the shin.