Legend of Korra: The Academy

Aiko turned, her head dropping somewhat. "Oh."

She paused before turning up again. "Aiko Hattori, starting this year. Lightning specialist. This is Kuya Shen, if I recall correctly."

"That is indeed my name." Kuya responded. He looked at the third-year student in front of him.

"So, you've got two more years of experience than us, huh? What's it like? How's the master? What'd you learn?" Kuya was curious to hear what Zhao Yun had to say about her experiences at the Academy of Bending Arts.

"No. But that's a good idea."

Without saying anything else, Kaizer started to slow down and suddenly jumped into a nearby bush. The boy hadn't noticed, but they had entered the park a long time ago. Kaizer hoped that Phoenix would follow and do the same.

Not being as close to a good sized bush as Kaizer was, Phoenix jumped into the air and landed in a nearby tree. Phoenix hoped that the tree's branches and leaves would be good enough cover to hide him.

Rubus regained his balance, and went back to twirling rocks, wondering if he should go to the park or just hang around the academy vicinity for a little bit longer...

Tai was part of the group sent off to the park to gather earth for the plan. There were a few other children who looked like they could be students mulling about, and while they had an excuse prepared it was better to remain as covert as they could manage.

As such they found a relatively quiet area of the park and it was there they created their hole, lifting out chunks of earth that they started to pile up close by.

Zhao inclined her head again.
"Well, Master Fann is eccentric, to say the least. But she's also a perfectionist. She'll drill you till your whole body will ache, then mess with your head. A nice person, all-in-all."
It wasn't clear from her tone whether she was sarcastic or not.
"Anyway... I believe a demonstration is in order," she continued. She took the correct stance. Taking several deep breaths, she steadied herself , and stabbed the sky with her arm, index and middle fingers pointed upwards.
A powerful bolt of lightning shot toward the sky. Zhao sustained it for a few seconds before ceasing.
Now, some of her hairs — the finer, shorter ones — stood on end, and her clothing was a little ruffled.
"satisfied?" she asked.

Aiko followed the lightning bolt's path with her gaze, eyes wide. "How do you do that?" she asked. "More to the point, how do you do that without frying your fingers?"

The gang members that were chasing Phoenix eventually stopped near the tree he was hiding. The leader barked for them to find the "stupid boy", but eventually, they spotted something and ran away. A few seconds later, two police officers followed them, one of them blowing on a whistle, ordering for them to stop. The other punched the air in front of him, and a cable flew off his glove. A grunt could be heard, and soon most of the gang members were on the ground, trying to break free of the cables.

As Kaizer slowly left the bush, he bumped into another police officer, who gave him a glare and said something along the lines of "watch where you're going" before walking to where the little lightning show was happening, mumbling something about disrupting the peace of the park. "Alright. You can come down. The police are taking care of your little... friends." Kaizer said to the tree.

Phoenix dropped out of the tree and landed on his feet. He turned to Kaizer with a smile on his face and extended his arm for a handshake.

"I wouldn't exactly call them my friends. It's nice to meet you ... You know, I don't think I ever caught your name."

Aiko looked over as the police officer approached. Smiling as normal, she walked forwards. "Can we help you, officer?" she asked.

Kaizer shook his hand after a few minutes of just staring at it. "Kaizer. And your name?"

The soldier analysed all of the culprits of the little lightning show, and they could clearly see that he was mentally celebrating the fact that it was just another group of kids. "Listen here, kids." he said, glaring at Aiko. "The park is not the place for your little bending demonstrations. Go do it somewhere else. You're interrupting the peace of other park visitors and of the animals that live here."

Phoenix was a little concerned at just how long it took Kaizer to respond, but he decided to ignore that.

"The name is Phoenix. Is there any way I can make up for the whole getting you involved in a dangerous situation thing?"

Zhao smiled innocently at the cop. She crossed her hands and waited for him to finish talking.
Then she said: "Of course, officer. We'll be on our way."
She walked away, headed toward the city; she walked slowly enough that Kuya and Aiko would be able to follow her if they wanted.

Aiko followed, still smiling. "Where can we go, though?" she asked Zhao. "The only place I can think that would let us shoot lightning nearby is the Academy."

Zhao rubbed her chin, stopping.
"Well..." she said, slowly. "There is my family's dojo; it is open to all benders who wish to train and further strengthen themselves. If they agree to abide by its rules, of course. My father, Liu Bei, teaches the Yun Firebending style to those he deems worthy, but every Firebender is welcome to train in the dojo. I know. I help with its maintenance."

"A dojo? That sounds good. What are the rules?"

"Yeah. Buy me dinner."

Kaizer stood there, expressionless, for a few long and awkward minutes. "It's a joke, by the way." he said, breaking the ice.

The officer muttered "damn, kids" before turning around and leaving the area where he was in... only to walk into where Tai and his little gang were doing the first part of their trick. The officer threw his hands up in the air, and ran towards the group, yelling "no bending in the park" and "stop what you are doing right now!"

edited 29th Jul '12 6:18:40 PM by Stratofarius

"Unfortunately I spent most of my money paying my tuition, so I can't do that."

Phoenix paused for a second, contemplating something.

"I am a pretty good cook though if I do say so myself. I'll make you a delicious dinner to make up for it."

"Uh-oh." The group froze in their tracks, a block of earth thumping to the ground without their support. They had hoped to be done and out of here before any cops arrived.

Quickly Tai summoned a rock into his hand, hiding it behind his back as the officer approached. "Hello sir! I think you'll find that, uh, we have special permission to bend here. Y'know, from one of the Academy masters, heh."

"It was a joke, Phoenix. A joke. Don't you understand that?... you see, that's why I don't joke!"

Kaizer threw his hands up in the air, frustrated, and began to walk away from the tree, motioning for Phoenix to follow.

"What exactly did those guys want with you?"

"Special permission? From the Academy?" the officer seemed confused and angry at the same time. "We tell those idiots at the Academy they can't allow things like they own the damn city. Alright, kid, show it to me."

Phoenix followed Kaizer away from the tree.

"I would really appreciate it if you didn't tell anybody about this, but i'm a illegal street fighter. One of the best. Their boss made a very large bet against me and tried to bribe and threaten me to take a fall. I refused, so now there trying to kill me."

edited 30th Jul '12 10:34:58 AM by luckybreak91

"Well sir it's going to be a tad difficult to show you the verbal permission he gave us, isn't it?" Tai replied, silently but quickly crushing the rock in his hand. Mass conversion was hard but just one stone to sand was something he could handle fairly easily. He just needed to stall a little longer.

"I'm sure the dude is around here somewhere. Or maybe back at the academy, I dunno..."

"And you expect that running away will help?" Kaizer asked, without turning around. "You said something about tuition. You seriously expect to study in the Academy with a group of criminals following you around? Do you even understand how dangerous that is?"

"Listen, kids." the officer said, stepping closer, and getting even more angry. "The rules say no bending in the park without written permission. You got no permission, you're all getting kicked out. Whether you like it or not. I'm going to give you all ten seconds to get out of here, starting right now!"

Phoenix shrugged as the two of them walked.

"I don't really have much of a choice. I refuse to not study at the academy, I want to become a great bender and I don't see any other way to do that. Besides I already paid my tuition. It's not like there is really anything I can do about them chasing me. I'm too scared of getting kicked out of the academy to go and beat them up, and I don't have any proof that they are criminals so I can't get them arrested."

Phoenix paused for a second before continuing his explanation.

"Yeah it's dangerous, but it's not like that is something new. I had to do dangerous things to get this opportunity in the first place, I am not going to let this stop me."