The Tournament

A few weeks later, Fei found himself in a similar situation, eventually ending up sitting in Lin Beifong's office after school.

"Kid… what the heck did you do to your uniform?"

Looking down, Fei realized his uniform was looking like it had seen better days. "Bending matches." He said after some consideration.

"Again? You damn troublemaker. Go home, throw that in the wash and do your homework or something. I'll be back with dinner after I finish some things up." Lin said with a sigh.

"Okay." Fei left her office and started walking home. This time, he paid greater attention to his surroundings, taking in every little detail as he breathed in the fresh air.

"Hey, wanna buy some deathsticks?" A shady voice called out from a dark alley.

"No thanks." Not even sparing the alley a second glance, Fei continued his casual walk home, starting to appreciate all the things that were going on.

'I should buy a gift for Beifong… but I don't have any money. Maybe I should get a job or something.'

As if fate willed it to be, Fei saw a poster on a wall, which stated that there was an individual tournament taking place today, with the top three finishers getting a large sum of prize money each. Seeing he still had some time left, he hurried to location advertised.

Finding himself at a large stadium, many people were milling about. Making his way to the registration booth, he got into the line and waited. Eventually, he reached the front.

"Welcome to the monthly Rising Stars tournament yada yada yada. Name, age, and element." Said the balding man behind the table in a bored tone.

"Fei, 15, and fire."

"Yikes, tough luck bud, most of the participants are older and water benders. You still wanna sign up?"

Fei merely nodded, so the man gave him his tournament ID and shooed him away.

"The thing starts in an hour, so make sure you eat and go to the restroom before." The man said as Fei walked away.

After looking around the stadium for a bit, he decided to go inside and wait in one of the locker rooms. Finding the number listed on his ID, he opened a locker which contained standard issue safety equipment.

Putting on the pads, he watched one of the screens and found out that most of the participants were at least 16, with a lot of them being 17 or 18.

'So we're pretty much all kids, huh.' He thought to himself. 'I just have to get third.'

Eventually, the event started. There was a singular platform slightly elevated from the ground, with lines marking different zones.

"Laaadies and gentlemen! Welcome to the monthly Risiiing Stars tournament, sponsored by the Sport Bending Association! We've got a mainly water centric lineup today, so just gooo with the floooow. Now let's get started!"

"First up is Xiao Fang against Xu Chao! Both are aggressive off the bat, but neither can seem to get the upper hand! It's a war of attrition now, who will crack first?"

The matches flew by, with the majority of them ending in a few moves.

"Wow! Those were mega intense! Now it's time for the last battle of the first round, a recurring powerhouse, Ming Bao, the Bronze Bastion, versus a newcomer, Fei!"

The crowd went wild for Ming Bao cheering and chanting his name. As for when Fei was mentioned, one member of the crowd was very confused.

"What's the kid doing here? I told him to go home and instead he comes to fight. I wonder why… he doesn't seem to particularly enjoy fighting." In the back of the stands, a familiar figure in a police uniform sat with her arms and legs crossed.

After the battle started, Ming Bao's strategy was made clear: stall and play defensive until the opponent was tired, then go all out on the attack. A straightforward tactic, for sure, but coupled with earth being naturally strong on defense it was a strong move.

Not strong enough though. Like a fountain, Fei flooded the arena with his flames. Unlike what people had typically seen, his flames did not immediately disperse, lingering until they fell off the platform. After filling the entire platform, he began gathering the flames around the box Ming Bao had made to protect himself.

As the air in the box was heating up, Ming Bao was furiously sweating. "What the hell is he doing out there, is he trying to roast me alive? He has to be tired by now, he's been sending a constant stream of powerful fire, right?"

With this thinking, Ming Bao launched the front wall of his box forward, aiming for where he thought the stream of fire was. Unluckily for him, he was greeted not by a stream of fire, but a whole fiery lake. Seeing as his opponent opened himself up, Fei quickly launched a quick jab at him and a small fireball raced forward, throwing Ming Bao backwards as he was hit. Smacking hard against the back of his stone box, he was out for the count.

"Erhm. That was. Quite the display of power! Let's give it up for the newcomer, Fei!"

Although those who bet on Ming Bao were pretty pissed, everyone who didn't went wild as it was rare to see unorthodox styles these days, especially ones used so efficiently.

Everyone had high hopes for Fei's second match, and he didn't disappoint. Rather, his opponent did. At the beginning, he gloated to the crowd, claiming that he could take on Fei's attacks no problem, even allowing a free hit with no guard. That turned out to be a mistake. Taking him up on his offer, Fei simply did a medium strength blast… which launched his opponent out of the arena.

The fights continued on with lots of cheers and cries of dismay. Previous winners lost some, and previous losers won some. Eventually it was time for Fei's last match. This time, it was against water bender called Kana. Sensing something dangerous about her, Fei kept his guard up.

"Ooh boy! For the final battle, two unknown benders who performed spectacularly in the first and second rounds! Who will come out on top? The mysterious water wielder Kana, or the ferocious fire fighter Fei? Who's gonna win it all? Let's find out!"

As the match started, both sides probed the other's defenses with light attacks. Deciding to push a little harder, Fei started increasing the amount of power he was using on his attacks. Kana had no difficulty keeping up and started pushing back in turn.

Kana tried soaking the ground underneath Fei but was countered by the flames he kept by his feet. As the match dragged on, both sides were looking like they were struggling to keep going.

The way Kana moved reminded Fei Long of how Yu used to move when he was tired. Thinking about this momentarily broke his concentration. Seeing this, Kana sent a torrent of water at his legs, freezing them. Before he could melt them, Kana rushed in, forming two ice blades in her hands, slashing towards Fei's neck.

The crowd looked on in horror as they saw what was going down. One member in the back was practically out of her seat, wanting to run to the stage.

In a turn of events that no one saw coming, however, Fei's top half leaned back and went horizontal while the ice blades swung safely overhead. He then put his hands together and blasted Kana well out of the arena and into the wall.

Everyone was still in shock when the announcer's voice rang through the stadium."Before we congratulate our winner, let's have a quick reminder about fight etiquette for future matches. No killing blows! Got it?"

"With that out of the way, let's congratulate our monthly tournament's winner, the newcomer Fei!"

The crowd went wild after that. People were cheering his name, and many pro teams were considering scouting him. An attendant walked on stage with his prize money: a whopping ten thousand yuan.

This was the first bit of money that Fei had made legally and on his own, so a feeling of pride budded in him.

'Chief Beifong is going to back soon, I better hurry and buy something'

Instead of staying and meeting people, which was the normal course of action after winning a tournament, Fei Long rushed out and went to the closest night market he could find.

"Hey there, I'd like to buy this ring." Fei asked and pointed to one of the jade rings on display.

"Kid, don't waste my time. Your clothes are in tatters, so you obviously don't have money to shop here. Get lost!" The overweight shopkeeper was angry.

"But I-"

"Get lost! Scram!"

Fei Long walked away, defeated. He was about to call it quits for the day and go home, but an old lady called out to him.

"Young man! Come here, you want to buy some jewelry, right?"

"Yes please." Fei stared at the items she had. Scanning over them slowly, he found a matching pair of metallic necklaces which looked simplistic yet unique. They were kind of like crescent moons, yet they were segmented into three chunks.

"So I see those two have caught your eye, how does five thousand sound for the both of them?"

'This is an opportunity of a lifetime, but he doesn't know. If he tries to haggle me I'll simply try to sell him something else to add to the intrigue.' The old lady happily thought to herself.

He reached into the bag and gave her the money without another word.

"Have a nice day." Fei said cordially as he left with the necklaces.

'Wait. Now I actually feel kind of guilty. He looks young… if he ever comes back, I'll make to give him something good for free. Sorry, boy.'

Fei rushed back home, certain he'd still be back before Beifong. After all, back in the gang the police seemed to be active late into the night. He let out a sigh of relief when he got gone and the lights were off. Regardless, he opened the door carefully and slipped inside.

As soon as he did though, the lights flicked on and he froze like a deer dog in headlights.

"What the hell was running through your mind today, kid?" Lin was livid. "Those tournaments are called dangerous for a reason! Sure, they call it Rising whatevers, but the amount of bright benders I've seen crippled is absurd. Why did you do it?"

"I needed the money." Fei Long said with some guilt.

"Damn it! You can just ask me if you need pocket money or something! I'm not the chief of Republic City's police for nothing! What do you even need the money for?"

"To buy you something." He pulled out the necklaces from his pocket and gave her one.

Beifong looked at it and then let out a sigh. "Well, Fei, it's a nice gesture I suppose. But don't think you're in the clear yet. Police can't be bribed that easily."