Responses to Reviews:

Pan2000: Oh, Yuad's a good one. I hadn't considered what Yue's Team Avatar's Nickname would be. I may have to steal that.

Zigzagdoublezee: I imagine she'd look a lot like she does in that one screenshot where she's angry at Momo in the North Pole.

RonaldM40196867: Their world would probably reach approximately modern technology during the time of the next Earth or Fire Avatars.

As Always, Please Review!

Yue stood at one end of the ring, and gazed anxiously at the door.

She was stood in a cavernous underground chamber, which was empty except for her friends who were about halfway up the tiered seating on one side of the room under guard.

The arena was a long, rectangular area in the middle of the room, with a huge door on either end. Large trenches had been dug into the floor on either side of the arena and filled with water; Bumi had stayed true to his word of giving her enough of her native element.

Yue stared at the door in front of her and wondered nervously who was going to come through it. Who would the King's champion be? She couldn't even begin to speculate. Would it be an Earthbender? Maybe even some other kind of bender, it wasn't outside the realms of possibility that Bumi had some Firebender that he kept as an attack dog. Maybe it wouldn't even be human at all, and she would have to fight some wild beast.

She gulped. The uncertainty was the worst bit.

Then she heard it; the sound of echoing footsteps from behind the door. Whatever was making them seemed huge. The booming steps came closer, and closer, making Yue's anxiety spike with every noise, until at last the door slid open and a figure stepped through.

"Hello!" King Bumi waved jovially at her as he entered, leaning on a walking stick and wearing his royal robes. "Only me!"

"What- where's the champion?" Yue demanded, relaxing. "You said they would be here!"

"And he is here," Bumi threw the stick away and bowed. "I fight my own battles around here."

Yue regarded the little old man with the hunched back as he grinned toothlessly at her.

"Really?" She asked. "You're sure about this?"

"You don't seem sure," Bumi observed. "Why, are you scared?"

"Well, I just don't want to hurt you," Yue told him.

"Oh don't worry," Bumi giggled. "You won't."

And suddenly he was moving faster than Yue could have believed possible, stomping with one foot and thrusting his arm towards her. The ground rippled and twisted, splitting as a crack appeared and raced towards her. Yue yelped and threw herself to one side, the crack barely missing her.

"How did you do that?" She demanded. Bumi just turned to her friends.

"This one doesn't know what Earthbending is!" He spun a finger next to his ear and then gestured at her. "I thought you said she was the Avatar?"

Yue frowned.

She swung her arm towards one of the pools and then back towards her, bringing a stream of water out which she launched at the King. Bumi simply created a big wedge out of earth, stood behind it, and the stream hit it, splitting in half and landing harmlessly on the ground behind him.

"More like it!" He said approvingly. Then he stomped again and a pillar of rock erupted from the ground in front of him. He began swinging his arm over it towards Yue, and chunks began breaking themselves off the top and flying towards her. Yue dodged one and thrust her arm towards a second, causing a stream of water to follow her movement and knock it out of the air. Then she repeated that with the third and fourth bits of earth.

Bumi then grabbed what remained of the pillar, physically pulled it out of the ground in front of him and threw it at her. It raced towards her, aided by his earthbending. Yue extended her arms, and then swung them around. Water leapt out of the pools, responding to her command, and wrapped itself around the rock, allowing her to bring it around in a wide arc and return it to sender.

Bumi took a single step to one side, and the earthen projectile missed him, smashing itself to pieces on the ground behind him.

He smirked.

"There's that waterbender mindset!" He told her mockingly. "But you're not going to hurt me with my own attacks, I know my own attacks! You'll have to do better than that."

Yue looked around, and decided to try something. She raised her hands slowly, and water began to lift itself into the air. A thick mist soon filled the space between them, and Yue rushed into it.

"Ah, very clever!" Bumi's voice echoed. "Remove your enemy's visibility, throw them off balance! But the joke's on you, my eyesight is already going!"

Yue lowered her arms, hoping to use her cover to get a bit closer, but the mist instantly dissolved, leaving her stood a few feet away from Bumi with no plan. He giggled at her.

"Nice try!"

Tui and La, Yue thought angrily, furious with herself. Then she was launched backwards several feet by a rock pillar shooting up and slamming into her chest.

She landed heavily and collapsed, winded. The impact had knocked her hair loose as well.

"Yue!" She heard her friends calling, but they couldn't come to her because the guards were stopping them.

She struggled to her knees as Bumi approached, once again looking completely harmless.

"Ready to give up yet?" He asked. "Looks like I was right, the Avatar would be better than this."

Yue struggled for breath as she looked up at him. Then she put her forearms together in front of her and quickly gestured upwards with both arms, copying Bumi's own move.

It was the King's turn to be thrown backwards, and Yue seized the opportunity to go on the offensive, launching a water whip which scythed into the ground, barely missing him. Suddenly Bumi was off-balance, and Yue charged towards him, summoning water which she orbited around her body. Just before she reached him, she spun herself around, bringing the water with her, and then launched a mini-tsunami towards him with all the power she could muster. Bumi's eyes widened as the wall of water slammed into him, washing him back several feet.

Silence fell for several seconds, only punctuated by Bumi's coughing and spluttering. Then he started to laugh again.

"Very good!" He said. "I knew you had it in you!"

He struggled to his feet.

"Well done, Avatar Yue," he bowed.

"Wait, now you do believe I'm the Avatar?" Yue demanded.

"Of course I do!" Bumi giggled. "I believed it the moment you walked into this place."

"So why did you pretend not to?"

Bumi shrugged.

"Because it was funny. The same reason I pretended to be a helpless old man!"

Yue scowled.

"You're mad."

"Totally and utterly," Bumi grinned. "It's a big part of why Aang kept me around, you know. Now, shall we go and get ourselves cleared up?"