Your winner, and still the champion, the Blind Bandit!" The announcer yelled, pointing at the little girl that had just so easily beat 'The Boulder'. A large amount of cheers erupted from the crowd.
"How did she do that?" Katara asked out loud.
"She waited and listened," Aang grinned. "That's her, she's got to be my earthbending teacher."
"She certainly seems good enough at it," Harry agreed before turning to Sokka. "I'll expect my payment from our little bet in twenty-four hours by the way."
"What happens if I don't have it?" Sokka couldn't help but ask, feeling slightly worried.
"Don't fuck around and find out," Was Harry's prompt response.
"To make things more interesting," The announcer continued once the crowd had died down enough for him to speak. "I am offering a nice, lovely, clean juicy, attractive brown sack..." A small gasp escaped a few members of the crowd. "...of gold,"
"Why did he describe it like that?" Sokka couldn't help but wonder. "Why did he pause?"
"To anyone that is capable of beating the Blind Bandit!" The announcer roared. "Is anyone up for it?!"
"I'll do it!" Aang said quickly, raising his hand and waving it wildly in the air in an unwitting impersonation of Hermione.
"I was going to offer but fine," Harry shrugged before gesturing for Aang to go.
"Go on Aang, avenge The Boulder!" Sokka yelled as Aang started heading down. "Double or nothing!" He quickly said to Harry. "Double or nothing!"
"No, I'm voting on Aang as well," Harry refused. "I'll want my money and my noodles at or before the appropriate time,"
"You mean they should be delivered to you in twenty-four hours from now?" Sokka asked with a slight shake in his voice.
"Yep,"
"And once again, what happens if I don't manage to make it?"
"You had better," Harry said in a menacing voice.
"Do people really want to see two little girls fight?" The Blind Bandit taunted once Aang got in the ring. Aang let out a small smile before he gave his response.
"Actually, I am not really here to fight. I want to talk to you," Aang told her.
"Boo!" Sokka screamed just before Katara slapped him hard on the back of his head.
Aang stepped forward and the Blind Bandit immediately smiled, she stomped her foot down and the ring shook as if a giant had jumped on it, a large pillar shot out of the ground near Aang and came close to hitting him right in the face, he jumped to the side before another rock shot up from under him and sent him into the air. Aang twisted in the air and used his airbending to slow down his fall as he landed a short distance behind his opponent. She turned around, looking bothered for about a second or two before she forced a smile on her face.
"Somebody's a little light on his feet! What's your fighting name? The Fancy Dancer?" She taunted Aang who smiled sheepishly.
"I like this kid," Harry snorted just before the Blind Bandit sent another rock pillar at Aang who hopped over it and moved to the side to avoid a large rock that nearly took off his head.
"I just want to talk to you," Aang told her.
"I just want to hit you!" She replied, pulling two rocks out of the ground and throwing them at Aang, they travelled at high speeds towards the airbender who jumped back and twisted in mid-air, each rock narrowly missing him as he landed.
"Time to try the air-stomp," Aang whispered to himself, thinking back to one of the new moves that he and Harry had practised.
Aang jumped high in the air to avoid two rock pillars that had come at him from each side and had nearly squashed him, Aang used his bending to make the air gather under his feet, as he landed the air was pushed from his feet and shot out in a large wave towards the Blind Bandit, taking her by surprise and knocking her straight out of the ring. The crowd stared at him with a stunned disbelief that lasted several seconds as their brains appeared to be trying to catch up with what had just happened. A few seconds later, the crowd burst into cheers for Aang. Aang looked shocked for a moment by all of the applause before he smiled and waved.
A moment later he remembered what he was there and turned to look around for the Blind Bandit, he spotted her walking towards one of the walls in the arena. He quickly jumped down and chased after her.
"Wait! Wait a second! I want to talk to you! Please!" He called out but she ignored him and walked through a hole in the wall that she created.
"Well, that was a bust," Sokka said.
"Not necessarily, we at least found Aang's new teacher," Katara replied. "What do you think, Harry? Harry?" She turned and saw that he was no longer in his seat. "Where did he go?"
"Damn it," The Blind Bandit grumbled as she walked through the tunnel she created, hoping to get out of this place quickly enough to sneak back to her home. "I can't believe I lost, I haven't lost to anyone in ages!" She moaned before taking another step forward and pausing, sensing someone waiting up the tunnel. She frowned before walking forward, soon she arrived in front of the person who was calmly standing in front of her. "What do you want?" She said in an irritated voice.
"I'm Harry," Harry introduced himself. "You got a name?"
"The 'Blind Bandit' is all you're getting," She told him. "What do you want?" She asked once more.
"Soon, a group of people will come looking for you," He told her as he removed his baton and separated it into two pieces. "They're very dangerous and about halfway competent, they'll find you, probably today."
"Who?" Toph asked, freezing as she couldn't sense a lie coming from him.
"You had better get to your home, quickly," Harry told her. "They won't cause trouble over there unless they're attacked, obviously."
"You had better start giving me straight answers or else," She threatened, taking a fighting stance.
"Catch this," He told her, tossing one of the sticks to her, she caught it with ease. "Keep that with you, don't lose it."
"If you don't give me a straight answer then I'll knock your teeth out!" She growled.
"You'll get your answers very soon," Harry smiled before he elbowed the wall next to him, causing a small hole to appear. "Don't lose the stick. See you later," He told her before entering the hole, allowing it to close behind him.
"Asshole!" She called out after him before quickly rushing back home, all the while wondering who the hell would be after her? Was it one of the guys she beat? She didn't know, but she knew that she had better be home in time to greet them with her fists.
"Where did you go?" Katara blurted out once Harry had reunited with them outside of the stadium.
"Oh, I was just locating Aang's new earthbending teacher," Harry said casually.
"You found where she is?!" Aang asked excitedly.
"I've got a possible way to find her," Harry responded before pulling out his stick.
"What are you planning to do with that?" Sokka asked, giving him a confused look. "Wait, isn't there supposed to be another one?"
"I gave it to the Blind Bandit, she should have it with her right now," Harry began explaining. "Hopefully she won't have dropped it somewhere. Either way, the runes on this will bring the sticks together and/or to my hand. But I thought about what it would be like if I have this stick and use it to pull itself towards the other stick."
"Wait, you can do that?!" Sokka asked, a stunned look on his face.
"Theoretically, I can get it to work. Here's the moment of truth," Harry said, before channelling his magic into the stick and suddenly the stick tried to pull itself to the right. "I got a bite," Harry grinned.
"I'm telling you, The Boulder was standing right there," The Boulder told Xin Fu, the head behind the Earth Rumble tournament. "I saw the kid hit the ground but there was no earthbending. Nothing made contact, the ring didn't even shake. The Blind Bandit just fell out of the ring. She must've took a dive and split the money with the kid."
"Hmm," Xin Fu growled. The Blind Bandit had been a surprise, for a while now she had been coming to compete in his tournament. This weak looking girl - that surely shouldn't have lasted more than a minute against an average earthbender - was also blind to boot, she shouldn't have been able to land a hit against even one incredibly weak earthbender but he had let her compete one time because he thought it would most definitely get people talking about his business. A blind girl getting tossed out of a ring would certainly get people talking.
But then, she had won her fist match, she had won the match after that as well. And then the wins just kept pilling up. He hadn't said anything about it, if the kid got hurt then that wasn't his problem, he wasn't paying for anyone's medical bills after all. Not to mention that the girl was bringing in a lot of money, after all, who wouldn't want to see a blind girl tossing around grown men like rag dolls? In fact, he had even started making more money by betting on her during fights.
Things were going well...until today.
She had lost, he had told the announcer earlier to make a surprise challenge, hoping it would help attract more fighters and customers and he ended up losing not just the gold from that fight but also the gold that he had bet on the fight. And now, to make matters worse, one of his best fighters was telling him that the blasted girl had taken a dive! Lost on purpose!
"Nobody...makes a fool out of me," Xin Fu said in a dark voice.
"Are we getting close?" Katara asked Harry as the group walked towards what looked to be a very expensive house.
"Wait," Aang said suddenly, seeing a flying boar emblem on the gate of the house. "That's the boar from my vision,"
"And my stick's leading me here, so yeah, I guess we are close," Harry said, answering Katara's question as he put his stick away. "Let's try around the back," He said, noticing the guards near the front.
"Seems like a good idea," Sokka suggested as they started walking around the back. "Unless you want to do your 'I'm the green Dragon, get out of my way before I burn you all' routine," He added.
"It's 'Emerald Dragon'," Harry said through gritted teeth.
"Whatever you say," Sokka said dismissively.
"Do you truly need him alive?" Harry asked Katara whilst gesturing to Sokka.
"Unfortunately for you, yes," Katara nodded sadly as soon as they entered the courtyard at the back of the house.
"Well, I'm used to suffering," Harry shrugged just before he suddenly stopped, causing everyone else to stop with him. "Did you feel that?" He asked.
"Yeah, I did," Aang nodded.
"Feel what?" Katara asked Harry.
"I could have sworn that the ground shook a little and..." That was all Harry managed to say before the ground suddenly shot up, tossing all four of them into the air. Harry had been able to recover and spun around in the air before using airbending to slow down his fall, unfortunately, the other three hadn't been able to and landed in some nearby bushes whilst Harry gently landed on his feet. "Not going to lie, that was actually quite fun," Harry commented before looking around, noticing two different things.
Firstly, the ground had repaired itself perfectly, looking as if it had never moved at all. Secondly, standing over Aang and staring down at him with an unimpressed look was the Blind Bandit, except she looked very different from before. Instead of wearing the same clothes she wore during the tournament, she wore expensive-looking clothes clothes that seemed more suited to an Earth Kingdom princess than anything else and had her hair dressed up in a big bun.
"What are you doing here, Twinkle Toes?" Toph asked Aang in an irritated voice.
"Wait, how do you recognise me?!" Aang asked as he quickly got out of the bush.
"Don't answer to Twinkle Toes!" Sokka groaned as he also got out of the bush.
"And you," Toph suddenly turned to Harry. "What are you doing here?!"
"Wait, you know Harry?" Katara asked, picking a leaf out of her hair.
"Yeah, we met and he gave me some vague warning about being in danger," Toph crossed her arms and glared at Harry.
"All I said was that 'a group of people will come looking for you'," Harry pointed out before gesturing around to himself and his group. "And here the fuck we are,"
"How did you even find me?" Toph demanded.
"That's through a combination of weed-created visions and magic," Sokka answered bluntly before Harry could reply.
"What?!"
"My name's Aang, I had a vision about you and we were trying to find you and Harry here tracked you here using magic," Aang added with a smile.
"Could you guys please not spread the news about my magic around?" Harry sent the two of them an irritated look. "And why would you tell her about the weed?!"
"What? She's going to find out about it anyway," Sokka said defensively. "She's going to be joining us after all, besides, we're out of weed anyway."
"I'm not joining you!" Toph cut in. "And what's this crap about magic?!"
"Merlin's beard," Harry groaned under his breath before shaking his head and extending his hand into the air.
"What are you..."
"Give it a sec," Harry cut her off just before his stick flew into his hand, shocking Toph who took a step back.
"Whoa!" She blurted out. "How did you do that?!"
"Magic," Harry said calmly as he put his stick away.
"Wait, that's why you told me to keep the stick with me!" Toph said angrily as realisation hit her. "You tracked me with it!"
"Pretty much, yeah," Harry confirmed, unfazed by her anger.
"Look, perhaps we should start over," Katara suggested. "I'm Katara, this is my brother Sokka and this is Aang, he's the Avatar and..."
"Wait a sec..." Toph cut her off, a stunned look on her face. "The Avatar...but...but the Avatar is travelling with...with the...with the 'Emerald Dragon'! That means..." Toph trailed off and sent a questioning look to Harry.
"Ta-da," Harry drawled whilst gesturing to himself. Toph stared at him for about a solid ten seconds, Harry had prepared to open his mouth to ask if she needed a medic when suddenly she squealed with delight and stepped in front of him, shaking with excitement, blurting out one shocking statement.
"I'm a massive fan!"