"Here we are, ladies and gentlemen, on another exciting match of pro-bending! Are you r-r-ready to watch the show?"

The thrilled voice of the commentator rang across the giant arena. Deafening cheers of a plentitude of fans were the response to his call. The arena was as full as usual, but that was to be expected when it was the most popular sport both within the boundaries of the Republic City and the world at large. After all, no one hosted Pai sho tournaments, to the disappointment of many players.

The arena was truly enormous, apart from the tiered rows for guests and viewers, the hub of the commentator himself, there was the ring for the players, more like a hexagon, actually, with the prolonged sides. It was split in half and coloured in blue and red colours, located in the very middle and separated from the rows by a very deep pit leading into a pool of water. The issues of safety had long been solved. Apparently for the match when a rock disk could break your ribs falling from the height of many meters into the water was not an issue. Few cared, the viewers came for entertainment, the competitors — for the tournament's enormous prize funds. Survival of the fittest in its finest. The lights were blaring so bright that one could barely see the night sky from under the glass dome.

Meanwhile in one of the ends of the stadium stood the members of the named new team. Each team consisted of three members, and this one was not an exception. Their faces were covered by the dark glass attached to the helmets. The aura of mystery added them some new fans. One of them was obviously a girl, while the others had male builds. The defence suits were painted in black and silver. The girl was fixing the gauntlet on her arm.

"Wolfbats?" The guy asked, "Couldn't they pick a more edgy name?"

"We are called lizard crows." The girl deadpanned and turned back.

"Hey, lizards are not as cool as crows, that's why I agreed. The name wasn't my idea."

"Nonetheless, we will handle their asses to them in no time," his female teammate retorted. The third member of the team remained silent.

The talkative guy laughed, shaking his head in amusement. He crossed his arms, leaning against the wall, "That's why I like you. You have an undying self-confidence."

The girl smiled underneath her mask. The announcer suddenly emerged from the platform in the middle of the ring, from beneath. He was holding a mic in one hand and a list of paper in another. The team prepared to go at being called forward. With the loud and clear voice of his the announcer spoke up.

"Introduucing the team of our new promising underdogs, the Lizard Crows!"

The platform they were standing on moved, transporting the team to the ring. The guy on the team meanwhile grumbled because of being called underdogs. With the loud cheers of the crowd the team stepped into the arena. Usually the teams gave some sort of introductory show, but the Crows were doing none. Partially because of one particular member's lack for empty showcases. The guy, on the other hand, was fully on board with the idea. But he did not complain, he came here to dight too, albeit because of more altruistic ideas. The lights above them went out, as the introduction was over.

"And in another corner...we have our thrice champions, the winners of many games...the White Falls Wolfbats!"

Unlike the Crows, the Wolfbats did give a show. First the lights flashed, revealing them standing on another side, but their appearance made the male Crow burst into laughter, his girlfriend laughed too, but more quietly. With their bat masks above the dark capes they looked ludicrous. And when they howled, outstretching their pseudo-wings, that simply did it for the Crows. Yet their reaction went unnoticed by many, as the laughter was drowned in howls, mini explosions from the fireworks and the fire show. The Wolfbats finally took off their masks, soaking in all the attention around, waving back and hearing the squeals of their fangirls. Their captain was indeed sleazy-looking, with a long forelock. Only when the Crows stepped into the center they paid attention to their foes.

"Oh, there they are," the team leader Tahno approached them, "Prepared to lose, newbies?"

"I wonder how much fire it would take to ignite his hair," the girl commented, looking at her teammates.

"With that much grease I would say a little spark is enough," the male Crow laughed again, receiving a glare.

Two teams got into battle positions, anxiously waiting for the ring. And finally the match began.

All combatants burst into action, beginning the exchange of multiple blows. The rules of pro-bending declared that in each team there should be one bender of ever element, apart from air for known reasons. Each element had restrictions. The waterbenders, like the male Crow and Tahno, exchanged small bursts of water and were forbidden from using ice and gas, but could hit the heads. The girl threw small gusts of fire, along with the opponent. The silent member of the team tossed stone disks which were in a plentiful supply around the field. The game went on, and not without interesting episodes, and even the lively commentator was unable to comment on everything at the same time.

"...And Tahno keeps hurling more and more water at the firebender! Look at that girl, she makes dodging everything look so easy! Tahno has to dedicate part of his shots to extinguish the flames!"

And indeed that was her true intention. She wanted to tie the known professional waterbender. Water was the hardest to deflect, and thus she wanted to keep Tahno busy, to make him concentrate solely on her instead of her whole team. Because if there was something her teammate could do best it was the 'teamwork'. But her opponent was strong enough, that she could not deny.

Said teammate at the same time was taking care of the other competitors. Pro-bending tended to become a one-on-one duel for at least a couple of seconds, and with his female companion busy and to the left, he had another part all for his little schemes. After a short series of constant bursts of water his earthbending opponent, and the latter's dodging, the guy fired another torrent in his distracted comrade to the right. The firebender noticed and dodged, but from behind the attacker emerged a stone disk and hit another earthbender while he was distracted. There was no limit to the distance from where the disks could be taken as long as they were from the same zone. The earthbender was knocked back, out of his area, behind a thin red glowing line on the floor.

The Crows all smirked, but the victory was short lived. Suddenly, after a very sporadic, but flowing move Tahno unleashed a stream of water right into his firebending enemy. The girl yelped and was knocked out of the zone as well. Shaking her head, she quickly recovered and jumped on her legs.

"This does seem like a torrent, ref! It's forbidden!" Her companion yelled.

The referee seemed to ignore him. Even the commentator seemed to notice that something was wrong. A foul play it was, then. The fight had to keep going. The exchange of blows continued, but for the girl it was harder to reach the enemy. Longer the distance, more time to dodge. With all of that in mind, her teammate left her enough opening for throwing fire. All the while as the rest of the team moved aside, they were attacked by the entire enemy team. And whilst the waterbender deflected the shots, the earthbender launched back at the Wolves a couple of disks. One of the disks, however, flew backwards, much to the viewers's surprise. The girl suddenly jumped on top of the slow projectile and fired at both of the opponents from above. The enemy firebender dodged, but the man Crow expected this, and the next shot hit the target dead on. You cannot see what's coming at you from two completely different directions. The new trick distracted them as well. Tahno was the only one standing in the first zone.

"Amazing, ladies, and gentlemen!" The commentator exclaimed, "The Lizard Crows are actually giving the Wolfbats a hard time! Wish our radio listeners could come here and see it with their own eyes. How will Tahno stand his ground?"

Tahno looked back at his companions behind, who nodded to him. In one swift motion he swiped the water at the enemy, downwards. He froze it and the earthbender slipped on the ice, allowing for one of the Wolves to shoot him with a disk.

"I don't know what game the referees are watching but it is certainly not this one! Icing has been sneaked in...yet we hear no complaints from the judges..."

"So you like playing dirty?" The waterbender exclaimed while fighting, "Rats...bats...all are rodents, aren't they?" He grinned.

"Would you shut up?!" Tahno exclaimed, before tossing more water.

Upon impact to the head the man painfully realised that there were rocks within the stream of water. The helmet was broken, too.

"Oh, that looks like an injury! Referees surely must do something by now."

But before anything could be done, a ring signalled the end of the first round.

"Wait...the round is over with both teams equally matched and that means there should be a tie-breaker."

Each team was supposed to decide on who was going to compete in this one-on-one duel. The referee tossed a coin. The chance to choose the competitor fell on the Crows. Good luck, because otherwise the Wolves would have fought the injured.

"How is he?" The girl asked her standing teammate for some reason instead of the lying one.

"I'm fine!" The said man raised his hand, before shakily getting up, "Damn, this helmet makes everything even worse. I'm feeling all dizzy."

"I'll go," the girl declared firmly.

"Well...I need some time to regain control of my senses," he shook his head, before leaning forward, "And you know what problems it carries. Don't hold back anymore, show him hell."

"If only," she sighed overdramatically, "We take fire."

Her teammate meanwhile grinned. The round was as good as theirs.

As the two participants stood in the center, the platform began rising.

"Let's see how you fair while playing honestly," she said a few seconds before the start.

The platform was small, so they had to improvise. A series of small fire blows in close quarters was something to be wary of. However, the fire had the same limitations as water in this sort of competition. And limits were made to be broken by one particular team. Their unfair game made them so predictable, they would break them, it was obvious to her. When a huge illegal torrent of fire was unleashed forward, the firebender was shocked to see the girl leap through unscathed and blast him right in the chest with tremendous force. He not only fell off the platform, he fell off the rink after hitting the wall and into the water with what could only be compared to a Wilhelm scream.

"That's for my boyfriend, you son of the bitch," the girl whispered.

"My goodness, this game is just full of surprises! I didn't even blink and it is over! Albeit the fire wall is not exactly allowed...a wink to the referees...Lizard Crows win the first round!"

When the platform was lowered, the girl was suddenly hugged by one hand.

"I would have kissed you, but we have helmets on," a comment followed.

"Shut it, would you," the girl rolled her eyes, but smiled slightly nonetheless.

The second round was supposed to begin soon, but then a referee interfered.

"I'm afraid the White Falls Batwolves will have to continue with two players."

"What?! Why?!" Tahno exclaimed furiously.

"Shaozu has received an injury and is now unable to fight even if he wanted. He is unconscious."

Tahno looked at the enemies. The couple only fist pumped without looking at each other. Now the wolves' leader was actually concerned. If their enemy could be on par with three, with two it was unfair. He had underestimated them, with that being not even that close to final he thought it would be a piece of cake. He would not repeat the same mistake twice.

Another bell rang, and both teams were once again exchanging blows in the middle. Knowing about the knocking force the girl could put, Tahno avoided her as much as possible. She noticed that, but did not press into him. She was more worried about her companion, but he held well, even with broken helmet and probably something else. Then again, he did heal quite fast. Meanwhile he came up with a game-breaking idea. He could not cheat, the referees would immediately scold him. But he had read the rules, and they all had wonderful loopholes.

"Look at that! The Crows pull out a trick from their sleeves. A wall of water absorbs everything thrown at it! Hosing water against the opponent is illegal, but it is solely a defence now! Wonder why so few abused this rule?"

The referee indeed could do little. Not a droplet of that wall was directed at the enemy. The glares from the Wolves only made it worse for him. The game went on, but the water shield was indeed impenetrable. Water only added to the shield and the earth disks got stuck in it. There were more and more of them. The fact that the waterbender did little apart from maintaining the wall made Tahno realise what he intended to do. The waterbender grinned, before his earthbending teammate with one move unleashed the entire barrage of disks he otherwise would not have been able to summon so quickly. Like from a damn machine gun the disks flew forward, and the Wolves were unable to dodge or block all of them, and with the addition of fire and water it was simply impossible. In a matter of seconds Tahno was pushed backwards two zones, his comrade fell into the water.

"What an outstanding move," the commentator wasn't even trying to be neutral, "This is bending for ya, folks, you are limited by your imagination and the Crows have plenty!"

The crowd was getting incredibly excited. A major buzzkill for the pro-benders was the amount of limitations during the fights, and many played and abided by the rules. Why would the same earthbending that built the walls of Ba Sing Se be limited to tossing disks, for instance? Those have just pushed the boundaries of the game to the limit, and the most exciting part — it was fair and legal. It was pure art. Before Tahno could do anything, shakily standing on his legs, however, the round was over. The amount of roars, both of disappointment and joy were deafening.

"This is incredible! Our thrice champions are defeated without the winners even breaking a sweat! And in the qualifying match no less! The Lizard Crows have won two rounds straight and are now winners! Let us congratulate our new potential champions!"

Tahno stood there, frozen in shock. The Crows were reacting differently. The obvious joker of the team bowed theatrically, while the girl simply absorbed the attention, opening her arms wide. Tahno's fist clenched as he approached the trio.

"Hey you, who do you think you are?!" He screamed, and by chance the announcer stood nearby, with his mic on, so everyone heard that.

"Look everyone!" The girl took the mic from the announcer, "We got a sore loser here!" The laughter filled the arena.

"You bitch!" Tahno exclaimed, having just lost his dignity. The water climbed to his hand.

The girl stared at him blankly, although the expression could not be seen. She only raised a finger. A single spark flew into the man's hair, and just as expected, the grease was set on fire. Tahno screamed and began his search for water to extinguish it.

All the way to the dressing room the Crows were receiving an applause from the viewers. The dressing room was not that spacious, but isolated enough for the team members to take off their helmets. The third member of the team just vanished into thin air while the jokester almost collapsed on the bench. The girl meanwhile took the helmet off. She was a young woman around eighteen, with a beautiful face, golden eyes and dark hair tied in a high bun for comfort under a piece of protection.

"Take it off already," she all but commanded.

Her teammate obeyed and did just that. He had astonishingly white hair, tanned skin and shining green eyes. The left part of his face was scarred by the rocks and he was slowly bleeding green liquid.

"Damn it...keeping a duplicate and faking bending is exhausting as hell," he panted, lying on the bench.

"You did well, Danny," she curtly complimented, beginning to search for bandages.

"You were good too, princess," Danny chuckled, "I don't need those, you know. Half an hour and the wounds are gone."

"Yes, I guess you are right, I need them too."

"That's not what I meant," the young man laughed, "So...we are in a tournament now?"

"As much as this disgraces me."

"Why are you so apprehensive?" Danny asked her as she sat nearby, "You wanted to participate, didn't you?"

"To show that I am the strongest here. But this game is just an insult to the whole concept of bending."

Danny finally got into a sitting position, but before he could say anything, they heard a knock on the door.

"I'm gonna look who that is. Hopefully not a bunch of fangirls."

"They are gonna leave in a crisp, then."

"Jealous, aren't we, Azula?" Danny smirked on his way to the door. His hand suddenly vanished from sight, before he peeked through the wall. A second later he returned. "It's Butakha."

Danny then opened the door. A man with a stereotypical capitalistic air around him strolled in. The owner of the pro-bending league oversaw all teams and thus knew the Crows by face. He was one of the few and was luckily unaware about with whom he was talking. The man looked around.

"Well, well, if these aren't our rising stars!" He joyously raised his voice as the door was closed and locked behind him, "Where is your twin brother?" Butakha asked Danny.

"He's already left. Doesn't like the attention."

"Well, his loss. Anyways, what you did out there was amazing. And I'm not talking merely about the game, oh, it was outstanding in and of itself. Humiliating the previous champions? That's a promising sign, I tell you."

"Talk about sport etiquette," Danny muttered.

"But. I'm afraid I carry bad news with me. As much promise as you show, all teams have to pay a sum of thirty thousand yuan to participate in the championship itself. I hope you can afford it?"

Azula immediately looked at Danny. Butakha followed the suite.

"Do you take gold?" He asked, "I'm a bit short of yuan."

"Gold is even better. But that would be...hell if I know how much...better exchange it somewhere. You are an odd fellow, why don't you have any paper money?"

"Because I am from a different state?" Danny offered weakly.

Butakha seemed to buy it, "Well, nonetheless. A fee should be covered by the end of the month, before the start of the tournament. Go to my secretary and she will arrange everything. Off I go, enjoy your victory, kids!"

With that he left, leaving the couple alone.

"So..." Danny said longingly, "Good to be king, I guess?"

Of course for him the tournament was not a source of getting money. He and Azula went in for the competition itself. Well, more like she convinced him to take part. Daniel Phantom was the King of Ghosts and Spirits, the one in charge of the world on the crossroads of many, inhabited by mortals. His reign had been going for four years, and with the situation being stable, with him sitting firmly on the throne, he could afford himself some entertainment like this.

"Let's go home already," Azula sighed.

"Your wish is my command, princess," Danny offered his hand to her.

The second Azula took the hand, the surroundings changed, the air was pushed from her lungs, but, as she had got used to it, she regained her breathing quickly. The living room they were in was rather fancy, as it was located in one of many skyscrapers of the Republic city. Phantom spared no money to make themselves comfortable. He did spoil himself and his girlfriend quite a lot. Living on the streets makes you like this. The room was circular, and quite big for that matter, with a huge panoramic window. A sofa was located in the low ground, and it was the spot where Azula landed immediately after. The room was dark, so Phantom switched on the lights. Drumming on the wall, he soon broke the silence.

"Want anything? A drink, maybe?" He went for the fridge.

"No," Azula called backwards, "I'd better take a shower first."

Danny made a sly smile, holding a bottle of some local drink, "Should I join you?" He asked.

"No thanks, you stink," Azula retorted, getting up and going for their room to pick new clothes.

"We still should celebrate our victory."

"We can go for a dinner after we are done. Does that sound good?"

"Marvellous."

Azula took shower first and waited for her boyfriend, wearing a red dress, with her hair nicely done after an exhilarating match. And as Danny walked into the living room, he noticed her staring out of the window longingly. Sighing, the young man realised what was the reason for her mood swing.

"It has changed so much," she mumbled, "And I wasn't even here to witness it. Who would have thought that our colonies would become...this?"

"We are looking into it, Azula. Time flows differently in two worlds, but this...when one year away equalled more than half a century...we will find a reason."

"It was me who did not come for this entire year. And now I don't have the courtesy to find out what's happened to this world."

"We did go to the Fire Nation. Though you didn't want to go to the Palace."

"To find my niece who is older than me on the throne? That will be one disaster of a reunion, I imagine."

Danny sighed. It would take some time getting used to this.

"Come now," he smiled, gently patting her on the shoulder. "Now is not the time to be upset. The tournament is as good as ours."

Azula chuckled slightly. "Alright, you lead this time."