Republic City welcomes new citizens into our arms. Avatar Korra and the realm defenders! After years of seclusion in the South, these masters of water, earth, and fire seek to add airbending to their list of skills. And under the tutelage of Tenzin, Avatar Aang's son, they should go far. But will this cool, calm, collective master of air be able to tame two hot-headed teens?
Air Temple Island Morning.
Korra was reading a newspaper as the others were eating breakfast. "And in the final round, the Buzzard Wasps won in a decisive knockout." Korra read out the article. "What do you think about going to the arena tonight, and catching a few matches?" Tenzin took a sip of his tea before answering.
"No. That sport is a mockery of the art of bending."
Luz rolled her eyes at that. "Well, what would they do if not join one of the Nations Army, Police force, or something? It's better than joining a gang, or bandits." He picked up his plate and got up before looking over his shoulder. "Or the underground cage matches."
"Cage matches?" Korra asked.
"Yeah it's like wrestling/fighting except in a cage, and you fight until you knock your opponent out… As far as I know, it's Earth Bending only." Korra sighed before looking out the window at the arena.
Later
.
Tenzin was walking with Korra,rj,gus,marcy,Apollo,kim,luz and Emily were wearing Air Nation robes with Korra's sleeves rolled up. "So... My mother has informed me that you haven't air-bent before." He said as Korra stopped.
"Yeah. I don't know why... The others came so easily to me." Korra replied as Marcy nodded.
"Yeah. I'm still not good either. I can only shoot a gust of air. But that's only because you haven't taught us yet. Can't learn airbending from a earth, fire, or water bender."
"Often the Element that's most difficult for the Avatar to master is the one opposite of their personality. For Aang it was Earth." Tenzin said, pulling Korra's sleeves down.
"Well, I'm as opposite an Air Bender as you can get." They walked up to see the kids standing in front of a training area with boards set up in a circle on poles.
(A/N: For a better picture look at this episode.)
"What is that?" Korra asked as they stopped in front of it.
"A time-honored tool that teaches the most fundamental aspect of Air Bending," Tenzin explained stepping in front of it. "Jinora would you like to explain?"
Jinora walked over and started explaining. "The goal is to go through the gates, and get to the other side without touching them."
"Sounds easy enough," Korra said before Ikki jumped over.
"She forgot to mention the gates will be moving."
Marcy walked up to her and smiled. "Spoke too soon."
Tenzin stepped forward and thrust his hand forward having gusts of air turn the gates. He picked up a leaf and threw it to the gates. "The key is to be like the leaf. Flow with the movement of the gates."
"Jinora will demonstrate." Tenzin finished as Jinora dashed over, and went through not touching the moving gates. "Air Bending is all about Spiral movements. When you meet resistance. You must be able to switch direction at a moment's notice." Tenzin explains as Jinora stopped at the other side, and thrusts her hands out making the gates go the other way.
"Let's do this," Korra said running in, only to hit every gate she passed and got kicked out. She tried it again, only to get kicked out of the gates again.
"Kim," Tenzin said, looking to Kim, who shrugged.
She walked over and dashed in. Korra looked amazed as Gus got through only hitting a board now and then. As he got to the other side, he hit a board and stumbled out.
"That's... A good start. Honestly, I expected you to do like Korra." Tenzin said as gus walked over.
"Maybe it helps that the element I was best at was wind." He explained as Korra got up from the ground. "Don't worry Korra. I'm sure you'll get it soon. You just need to be fluid." Apollo said as they walked to the Temple.
Night.
Korra now back in her clothes was trying to air bend a newspaper with a picture of Lin on it. She screamed before fire bending the paper.
"Easy Korra."
She turned around to see luz eating an apple. She threw her one before walking over. "That frustration also keeps you from air bending. You need to clear your mind."
"It's just the others came so easy to me." She said before sitting down against Naga and taking a bite herself.
"Well, not everything will come easily to you. If I didn't have know about the glyphs. I wouldn't be able to do my strongest attacks in my world." Luz explained sitting beside her. "Besides all this worrying will cause you to mess up."
Korra was hearing an announcer on the radio. They looked to see a watch building before dashing over and sat on the roof as the radio played a bending match. As they listened to the end of the match, Korra was leaning on the edge of the roof.
"And Mako thro-!" The radio stopped, and Korra's eyes widened.
"Korra,luz, can you two come down here?"
They both dropped down to see Tenzin holding the radio's cord. "You shut it off at the best part," Korra whined as Luz walked up to Tenzin.
"Come on Tenzin lighten up. She needs to relax. And the Pro-Bending made her forget about her frustrations." Tenzin looked to Korra and spoke up.
"You need peace, and quiet. And shouldn't you be in bed now?" He asked before walking away.
Next day
Korra,rj,gus,marcy,Apollo,kim,luz and Emily was meditating with Tenzin and his kids or rather trying.
Tenzin opened one eye to stare at her. "There's nothing to do. Let your mind, and spirit free. Air is the element of freedom."
She chuckled at that. "Free. You won't even let me listen to the radio."
"Please Korra. Look at Meelo. He's able to meditate peacefully."
She looked to see Meelo snoring. "He's asleep." She said, causing Tenzin to look in shock.
"What?! Well... At least he has the relaxation down." Korra sighed again before speaking.
"Whatever. None of this Air Bending stuff makes any sense to me."
"I know you're frustrated. But these teachings will sink in over time." Tenzin replied before hearing a small rock falling to the ground.
Looking back, they saw a pillar going up above the gazebo they're sitting underneath coming to a point, with Apollo and Emily sitting on a thin sheet of rock. "I see Apollo and Emily has it down," Tenzin said, causing Korra to huff.
"Yeah well they had to or they would have been really hurt since they started them on that." She got up and turned to leave. "I'm going to get some leecie juice.
Later that night,
Luz sat outside of Korra's window as it opened up. "Ready to sneak out?" She asked, causing Korra to jump.
"What are you doing?" She asked as he stood up.
"I knew you were going to sneak out. I wanted to help."
They both jumped down on the ground and sped to the cliff and jumped down to a small boat.
Picking up a pole, luz pushed them off before putting it down and used his water bending to move the boat to the arena.
As they got there, luz made steps to the top, ran up, and into an opened window. As they walked down the hall, Korra stopped as she looked to her left, and saw a gym with nets set up on the wall with green disks a few feet in front of them, and different kinds of weights around the room.
She walked in as luz followed behind, and looked around the room.
"What are you two doing in here?"
They turned around to see an old man in blue clothes, towel over his shoulders, hand tape, and grey hair with mutton chops.
"We got lost. You see this is our first time here in the arena-" luz explained only to be interrupted by the man.
"I'm tired of you kids trying to come in here, I'm calling security."
"There you two are."
Luz looked to see a teen boy with brown hair, and green eyes wearing red/white padded clothes with a green sash, holding a red helmet with an orange visor.
"It's OK. They're with me." He said as Korra nodded.
"Yeah, that's right." She said as the boy stopped beside her. "So you see we're together."
"Well. Not 'Together' together." Korra said as she and the boy chuckled nervously.
"No of course not." He said before Korra continued.
"We're friends."
The boy nodded as he cleared his throat. "Right I didn't mean for it to sound like-"
The man waved his hands at them before turning around. "I don't care what you are, I've got work to do."
"Thanks," Korra said as the teen nodded.
"No problem. I'm Bolin." He greeted them as he took them to the locker room. "What do you think? Best rooms in the house." Bolin said pointing to the balcony showing a platform above the water with grates that have water flowing through them, disks inside the floor, and ropes on the side.
"Wow. Oh, I'm Korra, and this is luz." Korra introduced them as two more teen boys came in both with brown hair, one wearing a red sash, and the other blue.
"Bolin. You have got to stop bringing your crazy fans here." One said with short hair said fixing his armor.
"It's fine. I kind of promised they could stay. Besides I've got a good feeling about the girl… Korra." Bolin said, bringing Korra over.
"This is my brother Mako." She smiled and held out her hand. "Hi nice to mee-" She stopped as Mako passed her.
"Oh, he must be a hit with the ladies," luz said walking over.
"Yeah. He just gets real... Focused before a match." Bolin said as he and the other teen walked out on the balcony, and a walkway rolled over to the platform.
Korra and luz watched as they faced off against another team wearing the same clothes but orange, and red. Bolin used the disk to shoot them at the fire bender, who blocked it and shot fire at him.
"And Ashook is the first to send fire to the Tiger-Dillos."
The announcer said as Bolin's teammate shot water at the other team.
Mako dodge attacks as he shot fire at the other team. Suddenly, Bolin and Ashook were sent back past a grate.
"And Bolin and Ashook are in the second territory."
Mako did his best to fight, but after dodging a fire attack, he got hit with a disk and dropped in the second territory.
"And the Tiger-Dillos get the green light to come in the Fire Ferrets territory."
The Tiger-Dillos came over to the Fire Ferrets side and attacked. Ashook was hit by a disk and flew to the edge of the platform.
"And Ashook is in the third territory. Can he stay in?" The announcer said before Ashook was hit with all three benders, and fell to the water below.
"And Ashook's out but he'll be back in the second round. Assuming the brothers can hold out."
A bell suddenly dinged.
"And round one goes to the Tiger-Dillos!"
Ashook came back on, and the second round started. Quickly Bolin, Mako, and Ashook were hit to the second territory before attacking the Tiger-Dillos sending them to the third territory. The bell rang again.
"And the Fire Ferrets win the second round."
As the next round started, Ashook was hit in the foot causing him to stumble as he threw water over. He was hit with a water strike sending him into Bolin, and both of them crashed to the floor. As they sat up, they were both hit out into the water. Mako quickly dodged attacks as he was pushed to the edge of the field.
He dodged another attack before throwing fire and hit one of the boys out to the water.
He quickly ducked under a disk before breaking another, and brought his hands together, and shot another boy out with his fire. The Earth Bender brought up another disk as they attacked each other creating smoke Mako jumped up, twisted, and threw fire out of his foot, sending the Earth Bender to his third territory.
He looked up to see Mako jump out of the smoke, and attack, sending him off the platform.
"A knockout! what a dinger of a hat trick folks, the Fire Ferrets win!"
A moment later, Bolin came back up to the room cheering. "Yes, going into the championship tournament!" He yelled as Mako and Ashook walked over arguing.
Ashook threw his helmet down and stormed off.
"That was great," Korra said as Mako walked over to the lockers.
"Oh, you're still here?" He asked while putting his stuff away.
"Oh, you're still a jackass?" Sasha asked as Korra looked at Bolin.
"Think you can teach me some moves?" He shrugged before smiling.
"Sure." He said as Mako sighed.
"Right now? Come on Bolin."
Bolin waved him off. "Although.. I'm not sure how my earth bending will translate to water bending." Korra crossed her arms and smiled.
"No problem... I'm an Earth Bender."
"Of sorry. I didn't mean to assume… It's just that you're dressed like a Water Bender so I thought you're a Water Tribe gal." Bolin said as she nodded.
"Yep, I can fire bend and water bend." Bolin looked confused before Mako spoke up.
"You're the Avatar, and I'm an idiot."
"Right on both accounts," Hunter said as they left.
Later.
Bolin now wearing black pants, and a sleeveless t-shirt was teaching Korra some moves. She got in her stance and threw several disks at the net.
"Nice power. But in a match, you'll be a sitting turtle duck... You need to be light on your feet." He said bobbing on his feet. "Then when the time's right. You strike." He finished quickly throwing two disks.
"OK let me try again," Korra said, bobbing before quickly throwing the disks.
"Nice going," Bolin said as Mako shrugged.
"Not bad."
Luz rolled his eyes before Korra brought him over. "Try it Naruto."
Shrugging luz quickly shot two disks, hit the net, and had them go through it, and into the wall. "N-Nice. But I thought you could use magic." Bolin said as luz shrugged.
"I can I guess in this world anyones who uses boiling isles magic is replaced with magic. I guess with my tailed beast chakra allows me and my friends who have tailed beast in them as allows us to bend all elements just like the Avatar. I just can't do the spirit stuff." Luz explained throwing a small ball of fire out in the air.
"OK. I'm turning in for the night. Bolin remembers to turn off the lights before coming upstairs." Mako said walking away as Bolin explained they live in the attic before they went back to training.
Morning, Air Temple Island.
Korra was hit out of the gates, before running back.
"Patience Korra," Tenzin said as Korra made it to the middle. She suddenly screamed before destroying the gates with fire bending as the others looked on in shock. "Th-That was a two-thousand-year-old historical treasure! What's wrong with you!?" Tenzin asked as Korra panted.
"There's nothing wrong with me. I've been practicing the moves you've taught me. But it isn't kicking in." she said walking over.
"This isn't something you can force. If you'd only listen-" Tenzin said but was interrupted by Korra.
"I have been. But you know what I think? I think the problem isn't me but that you're a terrible teacher." She said storming off.
"She didn't mean that. I'll go talk to her." Luz said following Korra.
As she caught up to her, she saw her punch a tree. "It's that frustration of this not coming easily as the others did for you Korra," luz said as Korra looked back at her.
"I know. It's just air bending's so... Hard." She said hitting the tree again.
"OK come on. Let's spar. That always cheers you up." Luz said getting into a stance.
"No bending?" Korra asked as luz nodded.
She dashed to her and threw a punch. Rj blocked it before doing a sweeping kick, knocking her down. She got up and kicked rj in the knee.
As luz fell to one knee, she tried to punch her, only for luz to block, and then uppercut her. She fell on her back as luz got up. She stomped the ground creating small pillars under luz's feet causing her to fall on top of her.
Well this is awkward luz said.
Same korra said.
"Luz! Korra!"
They both got up as kim ran to them. "Dinner's ready."
Arena Fire Ferrets Locker Room Night.
Korra,Sasha,Marcy,Anne,Darrel,kim and luz walked in to see a depressed Bolin sitting on a bench as Mako leaned against the wall with his arms crossed.
"We… Didn't miss your match did we? You guys look like you lost already." Korra said as Bolin sighed.
"We might as well have." He said before Mako snorted.
"Ashook's a no-good no-show."
A Referee came in and looked at them. "You've got two minutes to come out."
"Well, there goes our shot at the championship," Mako said with a sigh before Korra spoke up.
"Well, Why don't I help? I'm a top-notch Water Bender." Bolin looked up at her in surprise.
"But you're the Avatar... Wouldn't that be cheating?"
"It's not cheating if I only use water bending." She replied, making Mako shake his head.
"No way. I'd rather forfeit than look like a fool out there."
Korra deadpanned at him. "Thanks for the vote of confidence."
The Ref. came back inside the room. "Time's up. You in or out?" He asked as Korra smiled.
"We're in." She said running to the lockers.
"Hey, I didn't agree to this," Mako said as she picked some gear up.
"Well, It's better than forfeiting. This way the other teams won't say you just chickened out of the match." Sasha said as Korra walked out to another room to change.
"She's crazy," Mako said face-palming.
"Yeah, she is. You get used to it though."
Later.
Korra in the team's clothes walked up on the platform as they got ready. The whistle blew, and Korra immediately shot a member off the side. "Whoo-hoo!" She yelled cheering until the Ref. blew a whistle.
"Penalty Fire Ferrets Water Bender.." She looks up in shock at that.
"What? Why?"
"You're only allowed to knock the team off from the back, not the sides," Mako said as she looked down.
"Move back one territory." They started the match, and Korra was hit with a disk before jumping in the air and kicked water at the other team before landing over the line.
"Foul over the line move to territory three."
The bell rang as the match ended, and Korra moved back up. As the match started, the Platypus-Bear Water, and Fire benders attacked Korra forcing her back near territory two. As they attacked at once, she growled before bringing up disks to block the attack, having the match stopped, and the audience to gasp.
Sasha,Marcy,Anne,Apollo,Chris,maria, hunter,kim,king,deon,eda,kawaki,Darrel,king,deon,Emily,vee,willow,ash,Lincoln,Lucy,amity,gus,Dani,frosta,rj,miles,tint and the planters watched as the Refs. debated on leaving her in, and after a minute, one came back up.
"The Avatar will be permitted to play as long as she solely water bends."
The match started when the team attacked Korra forcing her to fly back into the water. Sprig waited for a minute, as Korra never came up on the elevator.
"Where the hell is... Oh frog." Sprig said looking down and saw Tenzin arguing with Korra. "Well… I'm glad I'm up here." He said before Korra came up looking cross. "Lost his temper huh?" She nodded as she sat down, and waited for the match to end. "You know Korra. This probably would be good for you. As a stress reliever."
"I know this is what I need. Why can't Tenzin see that?" She asked as he sighed
"He's probably taking on too much." She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Well just pictured if you were the daughter of the last Water Bender, and was tasked to bring them back, and possibly train the next Avatar. Kya told me how Aang would take Tenzin on training trips all the time. Aang probably just pushed him too hard, or something."
He finished before Korra walked on a walkway, and was pulled to the platform. As the next match started, the Platypus-Bears Water, and Earth Bender attacked Mako, and Bolin pinning them in the corner as the Fire Bender attacked Korra forcing her to the edge. Suddenly, she pulled her hands up and twirled around the attacks.
The Platypus-Bears panted as they used all their energy before Bolin, and Mako attacked them. Soon, all three of them were knocked off the platform.
"And the Fire Ferrets win!"
They cheered as luz came over, and hugged Korra before twirling her around in the air.
Later, Air Temple Island.
Korra walked up to Tenzin as he watched the workers fix the gates. "I'm really sorry... About everything. I was frustrated with myself, and took it out on you."
Tenzin nodded before sighing. "I'm sorry also. I was trying to teach you patience while losing mine." She smiled at him before speaking.
"No hard feelings?" He nodded at her.
"Of course not. You were really good out there tonight. You moved just like an Air Bender."
She blinked at that before speaking. "You stayed?" He nodded before speaking.
"I did. And Pro-Bending was the perfect tool for you to learn how to air bend." She smiled before turning around and walked away.
"That's good. I'll see you for training bright, and early. Oh, and I joined the Ferrets for good, and we're playing in the tournament in a few weeks." She said, causing him to sigh.