63Author's Notes: I'm so sorry for the super late update! I was really sick and then , when I got better, I had to catch up on my part time work and on my school work! On top of that, my grandfather was admitted into the ICU and I had to watch over him! I actually still am watching him since he's staying at our home while he recovers. Really sorry! Life's been a pain. I did this chapter while in class (lol priorities).
In happier news, I am surprised at the amount of alerts I am getting for this. It makes me so happy and motivated! I think I even got a lot of PMs threatening/pleading me to update. I'll still be replying to reviews as usual but I'll be placing them at the footer so you guys can just go ahead and get to reading! More than a month since I update? Eck!
And for 30 Second to Mars fans, yes, the chapter is titled after their song 'Closer to the Edge'.
Time to go down in flames and I'm taking you.
Taming the Wolfbat
Chapter 4: Closer to the Edge
Oh, for Aang's sake, what the heck was she doing here? Tenzin is going to kill her; this felt all so wrong yet so right… She didn't know what made her decide to say yes, no idea at all, yet here she was now in the Wolfbat's locker room as they prepared for their match against the Kolau Komodo Rhinos.
But, even with all her worry, she wouldn't deny that she was excited.
Ming had hauled Tahno out of the locker room to let Korra suit up first and she didn't want to keep them waiting so she hurried to fix her uniform. She was fixing her fire bender belt when the door opened, making her look around to see Tahno who was leaning on the doorway with his arms crossed on. "Man, I don't know whether to be jealous or happy that you make that uniform look good – even better than me, Uh-vatar," he drawled with a lopsided grin before straightening himself out to move out of the way as Ming headed for his locker to get his own uniform.
"Oh don't be so hard on yourself Tahbo; you look good in your uniform too. But that'll change if you don't stop calling me Uh-vatar," the girl shot back with a roll of her eyes and with her hands on her hips.
Tahno was about to retort when Ming cut in: "Don't threaten the boy's face, Korra, it's almost all he has," he said this with a straight face – or at least they imagined it was a straight face as all they could see was his back. Korra was cracking up by then that Tahno couldn't even get a word in between her laughter and didn't get the chance when the referee started to call for them.
Ming stood up with a small smile following as Tahno made his way to the platform that would lead them to the ring. Korra couldn't help but do the same as well when their team leader said three simple words: "It's show time."
As they were brought closer to the playing field, they were met with cheers and shouts from the audience as the spotlight shone down on them. The roar of the crowd was almost deafening, growing louder than it had been when the opposing team was introduced, as fans of all shapes and sizes were gathered to watch the Wolfbats play. There were some boos from the crowd, apparently fans of Shaozu who were dismayed by the replacement, but it was nothing at all compared to the rest, drowned out by the adoration. Tahno obviously reveled in the attention but wasn't the type to make himself look silly by waving his arms around as he just put up his chin and smiled at his fans. While Ming made a more open, welcoming gesture as he greeted his fans with open arms. Korra figured it was fine to wave too – even if they didn't know who she was, they'll know her name by the time this match ends.
A booming voice cut through the tide of noise though as Shinobi Shiro spoke into the microphone: "It seems that the Wolfbats have a new fire bender! After getting the championship title three years in a row with Shaozu, I wonder what happened and how this new fire bender will compare? Only time will tell but this little girl must be good to be chosen by Tahno! A risky move on the champions part but we'll trust their choice!"
Korra's jaw tightened at being called a little girl and Ming might have mistaken this for nervousness when he gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, Korra, just keep your feet on the ground, knock them off the back of the ring, only bend fire and do your best. Me and Tahno will do the rest, alright?" he told her with a nudge, Korra returning the smile with a nod.
"You got it, Mingy."
When the cheering died down a little, the two teams stepped forward, facing their respective element counterpart. Korra was looking up at a burly, old fire bender who just exuded an intimidating aura but that didn't make the girl back down as she only glared back.
"Players! Are you ready?" the referee asked. And there was the whistle with both teams wasting no time in trying to out bend the other.
Korra was quick to dole out the fireballs; she didn't need to get water from the throughs or earth from any of the disc dispensers like the other members of her team had to which meant she could keep going for as long as she could. She couldn't fathom how they would be able to bend with such limited resources and was kind of glad that she was the fire bender of the team.
It was apparent in their performance that Tahno and Ming had been working together for a long time with how they worked fluidly together. The way they ducked and weaved, bending the elements in a flurry of assault. From the corner of her eye, she saw as Tahno froze water under one of their opponent's feet and ducked as he let Ming leap frog over him, throwing a disc at the same target's way. The impact was strong enough to send the guy, the fire bender of the group, skidding out of the zone – out of all the zones, in fact – and into the drink. This was confirmed quickly enough by Shinobi Shiro.
The girl couldn't help but cheer for them but remembered where they were when she had to bend backwards in order to avoid an earth disc sent at her, the thing almost touching the tip of her nose. She quickly snapped back into action and counter attacked with a flaming one-two punch, the earth bender shielding his face as heat licked at his arms. She went to recover her stance and the opposing water bender saw this as an opening, sending a ball of water at her.
The attack would have sent her back a zone or two as well if it weren't for the fact that Tahno jumped in front of her, blocking the attack and rendering it useless with an arm covered in ice. "Keep on your toes, Little Rabaroo," he smirked at her.
Korra made a step back in surprise, only to find Ming had stepped in behind her to make sure she didn't step back into the second zone. Considering the fact that he was a well built guy, it felt as if she had stepped back into a wall; it was surprisingly really how fast and agile he could move which showed how great of an athlete the guy was, as far as she could tell.
Before she could even open her mouth to thank them or to say something witty retort in reply, the two had gone back into the game. There was no time for talking or to make up a plan; they just went with what felt right and gave everything they got.
She realized, she ought to do the same.
Letting out a deep breath, she focused on the water bender before her as the two were keen on teaming up on the earth bender. She wasn't put off by it – the two knew how to work together better and she would only get in their way; maybe at a later match, she could join them, but not right now. And besides, she was itching to get back at the guy who tried to knock her back while she wasn't looking.
She had to jump to the side to avoid an oncoming attack at her and used her momentum to return some of her own, feet aflame as she kicked forward balls of fire before landing and doing the same with her fists.
If this was fire bending training back at the compound, she could have finished them in no time but there was a whole different style here and they were only allowed in their zone. It was annoying but that was an okay trade off to be able to play with the best team in the best sport in the history of Republic City or even the world.
Wave after wave, back and forth, she kept going at it with the opposing water bender until the guy suddenly stopped as he ran out of water. Korra couldn't help but grin in a devious way and the man was all too worried with the look in her eye as she let out a big one, knocking him back two solid zones.
"I'll have that then," Tahno suddenly spoke, sending a stream of water at the other water bender to send him into the drink.
Shiro Shinobi's voice boomed again across the stadium, although Korra might have only noticed now that she wasn't focused; "And the Wolfbats won with another knockout folks and make it through the preliminaries! Will they win the tournament this year again with the change in the team line up? Looks like we'll find out won't we but the new fire bender certainly didn't disappoint!"
Korra stuck her lip out at Tahno, her brows scrunched together in annoyance. "I barely got to do anything and I had that guy right where I wanted him," she huffed when a hand planted itself on her head and Ming ruffled her hair.
The Wolfbat water bender shrugged nonchalantly in reply. "You'll get your chance next time, Korra," Tahno smirked at her only to turn around to run his eyes over the cheering audience.
These made the girl huff and roll her eyes again but she supposed it was just one of his quirks. Ming wanted her to know this as well; "Don't worry about him, he just likes the spotlight."
Tahno looked back at the two, wondering why they weren't joining him in waving to the adoring fans. He had a raised brow and a curious look but that quickly disappeared in a charming smile – a smile that Korra thought was a tiny, bit infectious as it wiped the pout of her face and made her grin as well. This wasn't the time to be mopey anyway, they had won and that's all there is to it.
Except it wasn't. It was much more complicated than that.
By the time she got back to Air Temple Island, it was obvious she was in trouble: "Pardon me everyone, have you seen Korra this evening? She's not in her room."
That was Tenzin, speaking to the Lotus guards – it was by good luck that she hadn't brought Naga and decided to come back home by swimming and sneaking back to her quarters. She could just slip back into the house and tell Tenzin that she was in the bathroom or something… yeah, that will work.
But, for some reason, she felt bad about lying to Tenzin. Not that he would understand why she decided to join the pro-bending tournament anyway. He had made it clear that she couldn't even listen to the sport on the radio, let alone participate in it. Nooo, he would rather make her meditate about how bad she was at air bending.
That thought alone made it clear that she shouldn't let him know at all. It was her secret and it would stay that way.
Of course, she was underestimating the power of being the Avatar…
More notes: I'm worried this is too short, how long do usual stories go? Also, stupid hands; I keep spelling Tahno as Thano so many times in the story when I first wrote this. And I rewatched the episodes featuring the Wolfbats to see if I forgot something over the time I didn't do anything LoK related and, man, Ming is actually cute! I also had to look up pro-bending rules and, boy, do the Wolfbats cheat!
If any are wondering why Tenzin didn't appear at the ring, well, the match ended so quickly that he wasn't able to catch it on the radio and find out. Heck, she didn't even go into air bender mode. So he doesn't know Korra's in a pro-bending team… which probably means trouble later on. And we're finally done covering the second episode! Woo.
I promise the next update won't take a month! Maybe one, two weeks tops. The next few chapters is a bit harder to do…
Kereea: The last part was like the 'eureka' moment for Tahno but I didn't think there was a need to point it out.
ReaperDuckling, LoveNotes333: Not so fast update this time, I'm so sorry! QWQ
Kigaroo, Ladybearington: Shaozu x Korra was a joke from my friend after reading the 3rd chapter… But it could be a possibility, I guess? Xd And it's a little bit of both! He still holds some friendship with Tahno and wants to protect Korra in a Tsundere way I guess (did I use the right Dere?).
Awkward Seductress: That's basically the plan. AU Divine punishment for Mako?
CocoBeach: That was the original plan actually, Shaozu being jealous of Korra. BUT I didn't want to meet the wrath of people who do not like LGBT relationships. Also, I avoid giving canon characters LGBT sexuality unless it's actually canon, needed for the story or just makes sense to me. Right now, Tahno seems more likely to be bisexual to me than anyone else in the LoK series. Nothing against LGBT as I'm part of that community!
Pinky Prattle, . . ., yaten-loves-taiki, furrycheese521, AlgorNox, XxShyxX, Starshinesoldier, Jess305, anastasiajoy and all the people who subscribed: I hope this chapter would make you forgive me! 8D I'm not that good with action scenes I believe because I'm mostly a horror, psychological kind of writer.
Now, I will go celebrate this victory with a Magnum.