This Avatar is Fake?

Jun and Haru was running across the streets of Nong Ruen Roeng with a group of people chasing them.

"I told you we shouldn't eat there!" Haru angrily shouted at Jun.

"Hahahahaha but all the players I've talked to said it was tbe best in town!" Jun laughed without any regrets.

It turns out the restaurant they went into was affiliated with the Tran Family. They were chased down with icicles flying their way as soon as they got out of the establishment.

"Kh!" Haru pulled up the ground and made an earth wall to block the icicles.

Tatatatatak! Quite an amount of ice embedded into the earth wall he had made.

Woosh! Woosh! Woosh!

Meanwhile, Jun was causually weaving and jumping to dodge the ice as he ran along with Haru.

Wooooooo

A loud siren blasted and red and blue lights flashed their way.

Juna and Haru snapped their heads to the people that were chasing them and saw that they ran away.

"Hey you! Stop!" The swamp police came.

But theu couldn't stop because they didn't want to leave any official record because of Jun's status as a fugitive and so they continued to ran.

When they finally got away, they found themselves in an empty alleyway behind a building.

"Phew!" Haru wiped the sweat off his forehead. "That was close."

Tap. Tap. Tap.

As they were catching their breath the noticed footsteps coming from behind them.

When they turned around they widened their eyes.

It was Vinh. He also widened their eyes.

"Stand back." Haru pulled Jun behind him as his eyes tensed up on Vinh.

"What?" Vinh tilted his head at the obvious hostility being shown to him by a stranger. But he turned his gaze towards Jun who he noticed earlier. "What are you doing here?"

"We were-"

"We were being chased by your father's goons! Do you really not know?!" Jun was about to explain but Haru cut him off and started interrogating Vinh.

Vinh's eyes widened. He understood the situation immediately. "I-"

"Maybe you're here to catch us too!"

"Stop it, Haru! I already told you he's not like that!"

"We can't know that for sure."

"I'm not!!!" Vinh clenched his fists and shouted. "I'm not my father! And I don't want Mr. Silla to get hurt! I didn't want anyone to get hurt!"

"..."

Jun and Haru observed him.

"Then what are you doing here?" Jun calmly asked.

"I... I was visiting my waterbending master in the hospital."

It turns out that the alleyway they were at was behind the hospital building.

"Is your master's name Dat?"

Vinh widened his eyes then looked down and bit his lip. He nodded.

"...I'll ask my father to stop bothering you." Vinh was the first to break the silence.

He turned around and left them in the alleyway.

"Do you think he's telling the truth?" Haru turned to Jun.

"I trust him." Jun confidently confirmed.

"Haaa... what are we going to do now?"

"We just have to wait until the next game... but before that..." Jun looked at the hospital building.

***

Bang! The door of the office slammed open.

"Dad! Are you still not satisfied?! Hurting master, and now you're trying to hurt another person!"

"..." Johnny Tran. The boss of the Tran crime family. Vinh's father. He looked at Vinh's eyes and calmly faced his son's rage.

Looking at his subordinates, he gestured for them to leave him alon with his son.

"Dad... I don't want to win like this... I'm not like you."

Bang! Johnny slammed his desk with his fist. "Nonsense! You're my son! You're a whole lot like me!"

He broke into a smile. "Your stong desire to win. Your tenacity. All of it...." Slowly walking towards his son until their eyes were just a few inches away, grabbing his shoulders. "All of that came from me."

"But..." Vinh looked down. "I don't want to win that way."

"Look at me, son." Johnny grabbed Vinh's chin and forced him to look up at him. "Dat taught you well, but he instilled his weaknesses on you."

At the mention of his master's name, Vinh's eyes shook.

"Winning is winning, son. No matter the method used. Come here." Johnny pulled his son into an embrace. "I won't try to harm Silla anymore, but I'll teach you how to win." Johnny Tran made an ominous smile.

***

"IIIIIIIIIT'S TIIIIIIMEEE!!!!!"

Pyrotechnics shot up behind the announcer as he screamed into his microphone.

"Wooooooooohhh!!!" A crowd of significantly larger size than the previous games was in attendance.

Haru watched among them. He has calmed down now that it seemed Vinh has kept his word about keeping his father from trying to harm them since they reached the event without any trouble.

But he still told Jun to be careful.

"For those of you watching these games for the first time! The main event! FLOATING LOG JOUSTING! These players will have to..."

Floating Log Jousting is basically a waterbending battle but both of you are on a floating log. The tendency of the floating log to roll on the water disrupts the player's balance making it more interesting. You lose if you fall.

It was a bracket event. The four players that won the race from earlier will compete with each other one on one. Usually, the first place will face the fourth place and the second will face the third. They arranged this so that the two strongest players can face each other in the last round.

But Vinh and Jun tied for first place, so they had to toss a coin on who faces the other two.

The winners of the first round will face each other to battle for first place to take it all.

The losers would have to compete for third place. Losing twice means you fall off the podium.

Stepping onto the log, Jun and his opponent goes first. For a normal person, it would be hard to balance yourself on a floating log, but both of them managed to step on it without making it roll.

Beeeep!

"Begin!"

"Woooooohhhh!!!" The crowd roared as Jun's face was projected onto the screens. He faced the cameras and made a playful wink.

"Kyaaaahhh!!!" During the course of the event, Jun managed to gain fans because of his face. Specifically girls.

"Grrr!" Jun's opponent was annoyed by Jun's nonchalant attitude. Not to mention the envy he felt from the attention he was getting from the opposite sex.

He started water bending a wave of water towards Jun but Jun just accepted it and with a swipe of his hand, pulled it into the air. The water circled behind him and with an extendion of Jun's hand, it shot forward towards his opponent.

It happened so fast that he couldn react to it.

Splash! He fell of the log.

"The winner! SIIIIILLLAAAAA!!!"

"WAAAAAHHHHH!!!" The crowd cheered.

Jun jumps off the log, into the sidelines where the next players were. Vinh and the player that took fourth place.

Jun smiled at Vinh, but Vinh just took a glance at him and walked forward.

"..." Jun recalled what just happened. Particularly, the sight of Vinh's eyes that seemed different. 'It was like murky water. They used to be clear before.' He thought.

Beeeep! It was the signal that Vinh's fight had started. Both of them traded blows with waterbending until...

"Huh?" Vinh's opponent looked at his left foot that suddenly stopped moving. He pulled on it until he was able to move again but it was too late. As the log rolled, he tried to catch his balance and so he didn't notice the stream of water shooting forward at him.

Splash!

"Vinh goes to the next round to fave off Silla!!!"

"Wooooohhh!!!

Jun went into deep thought about what just happened.

Even Haru, in the crowd, was furrowing his brows in confusion at what just happened. With his experiene as a bender, although not a waterbender, he recognized that what happened was strange.

But to others, they didn't notice anything weird.

And so, it was the last round. Jun versus Vinh.

Both of them calmly stepped onto the floating log.

Beeeep!

Vinh started the battle by bending his knees and pushing the log into the water, causing it to tilt.

Jun just went with the tilting log upwards, waterbending the water below to tilt it more.

But Jun's opponent was no beginner, he quickly adapted and ran across the tilting log towards Jun who was moving backward until the log was fully upright and he was standing on its end.

Vinh continued to chase after him until they flipped the log fully and were back into their original places.

Splash! Water sprayed everywhere as the log crashed back into the water.

It seems both of them can balance well on the log, so they started waterbending.

A stream of water circled around before extending towards Jun like a whip.

Splash! But Jun blocked it with a water whip of his own.

Without missing a beat, the water in the air when it had collided floated and turned into icicles. Jun fired it to Vinh but it got washed away when Vinh waterbent a wave of water in front of him.

Angry, Vinh bent the wave of water into a stream to shoot forward towards Jun. It was a significant amount of water, raging towards Jun. It was sure to wash Jun away from the log.

Clap! But Jun put his palms together in front of him, slicing the huge current of water and slid into the gap.

Vinh was astonished, but he had no time to be amazed.

And so, he planned his next move. He had to win by any means necessary. Just like what his father had done.

On the screen, Haru watched the fight closely.

Jun smiled and he started moving his mouth. In response, Vinh widened his eyes.

"How..." Vinh asked in bewilderment.

"Ask me about it later! Hup!" Jun crouched and turned as he stood back up, waterbending a stream of water upward and turned it into a large spike.

Vinh's eyes opened wide at the size of the icicle pointing at him as it spun in the air ominously.

Jun, with his open palm up in the air. "Ha!" As he dropped his arm and pointed his palm at Vinh, the large spike shot like a cannon towards Vinh.

Without any means to stop the attack, he decided to dodge it by jumping up in the air.

The huge spike blocked Vinh's view of Jun, but as he went up, Jun was revealed to be waterbending a stream of water towards Vinh. Without any foothold, he wouldn't be able to dodge it. So he crossed his arms instead. He blocked it to prevent any damage but he was pushed away.

It was quite a distance from the log. He was sure to fall into the water.

Splash!!!

"He's done it! Silla takes it all!!!"

The crowd roared.

Haru wanted to cheer but he had to focus first and escape... "Huh?"

A familiar man approached him on a wheelchair.

Back on the log where Jun was waving towards the crowd and the cameras.

Swoooosh! Vinh waterbent to propel him out of the water back onto the log. Using water bending, he was now dry.

"How-"

"How did I know you were bloodbending?"

That was what they were talking about earlier, but it wasn't audible from the crowd whete Haru was.

"Yes. How did you know?" Vinh asked again.

"Because I can bloodbend as well." Jun calmly replied with a smile.

Vinh looked down and bent his lip. Upset at his defeat. He won the match before when bloodbent his opponent and caused him to stop moving for a second. He had tried it again on Jun but was surprised when he couldn't.

"I failed..."

"Pft! Ahahahahaha!"

"Kh!"

"Hahahahaha" Jun clutched his stomach and waved his hand at Vinh. "I'm not laughing because you failed. I'm laughing because you can't see." He wiped his eyes.

"Can't see what?"

Jun pointed to their exit where Haru was standing.

Vinh widened his eyes in surprise. He jumped off the log and immediately ran over to him. Jun followed closely.

In front of Haru was Dat, on a wheelchair.

He was smiling.

"Master..." Vinh uttered when he got close enough.

"I found him in the crowd earlier and we went here when the match was over." Said Haru as he went to Jun's side.

"Master... I failed..." Vinh crouched down and held Dat's hand.

"You didn't fail yet..." Dat said "That was just a game, Vinh. What's your dream?" He asked with a loving smile.

"I-!" Vinh snapped up his head and looked at his master. He bit his lip to contain in his tears. "I want to become the best waterbender ever!" He loudly declared.

"I'm proud of you, Vinh."

That's when Vinh couldn't hold back his tears any longer and cried on his master's lap. Dat gently patted his student's head.

Jun smiled at the master and the student having a moment.

Earlier, they went to the hospital to find Dat. They found out that he knew who was behind his unfortunate accident. A light post fell over him as he was heading home. It was orchestrated by Johnny Tran, Vinh's father.

But when they asked him if he was angry at Vinh, he said: "I can never hate him. He's like a little brother to me."

"Don't worry about getting second place. It was inevitable even if you had faced me instead of this guy." Dat jested and pointed at Jun.

"I'm sorry, master" sob.

"You already apologized earlier. Don't worry about it and just keep training." He patted his head.

Vinh finally lifted his head up with his fave full of tears. "I will!" He declared.

Jun was happy. Vinh's eyes were clear again.

But that moment would be cut short.

"Vinh!"

All of them looked towards where the shout was coming from.

It was Vinh's father. Johnny Tran. The head of the Tran crime family.

"You lost, Vinh! I told you to use any means necessary to win!"

Vinh walked forward. "You've hurt so many people. Stomped on people's lives! And for what? Just to get ahead of everyone? That's not how I will win. I won't follow you ever again!"

"Hahahahahaha" Johnny Tran covered his face and started laughing maniacally. "My son? A loser?" His fingers moved eerily.

"Kh!" Dat started choking.

"Dad! No!" Vinh swiped his hand in the air as if cutting the strings from Johnny Tran's hand.

"Gasp!" Dat was able to breathe again.

"If only I hadn't let you learn from him..." Johnny said with a frown.

He looked around and saw nobody around but them and the area was covered from the public. He had instructed his subordinates to make it so.

"Don Tran. Please don't make things worse than it already is. Your son is already on his way to be the best waterbender there ever was. He'd be able to do what I wasn't able to do. He'll be a star in the pro-bending league." Dat said.

"Don't lecture me about how I raise my son!" Johnny moved his fingers again.

"That's enough!" Vinh prevented him from doing anything.

Johnny quickly scanned his surroundings and saw Haru.

"Gah!" Haru started floating in the air with no control over his body.

"No!" Vinh couldn't do anything to stop it because he was occupied protecting Dat.

Luckily there was also someone who can bloodbend.

Haru fell down on his feet and tested out moving his body. "Wha..."

"You're like a child throwing a tantrum right now because they're not getting what they want." Jun stepped forward.

"You..." Johnny narrowed his eyes at him.

"Let us leave. You can't do anything about it, anyway. Let's call it a draw."

"Draw? Hahahahaha! There can only be one winner. Always." He snapped his fingers and his subordinates assembled behind him, blocking the exit.

"Haaa..." Jun sighed and droop his shoulders. "Fine. Have it your way... Kh!" Jun suddenly freezed. His body began to move stiffly like he was possessed.

Vinh, Dat and Haru furrowed their brows and looked at Johnny Tran, but he was as surprised as they were.

"Kahk! Gah! Oh no~ Johnny Tran is bloodbending me~ Big Boulder Haru~ save me~!" Jun winked at Haru.

"Big-? Khm!" Haru cleared his throat and understood what Jun was trying to do. "I-I'll save you!" He puffed up his chest and flexed his biceps.

"What kind of crappy play is this?" Johnny Tran and his subordinates laughed at what seemed like Jun and Haru going insane from their despair.

Jun trudged towards Haru close enough to hear his whisper. "Hey. Lesson's about to start. Remember the feeling of it, okay?"

"Wha-" Just as Haru was about to question what Jun was saying, his foot stomped into the ground. "Huh?!"

Crack! Boom! Thud!

"Grah!" One of Johnny's subordinates was hit by an earth pillar and was flung into the air.

"Get them!" Johnny ordered.

"Graaahhh!!!" Most of Johnny Tran's subordinates were waterbenders.

They started firing off water whips and icicles to Jun and the rest.

"I'll help!" Vinh stepped forward and started parrying the attacks with waterbending as well.

An icicle he missed was headed towards his head.

Snap!

But it was whipped away by water.

Vinh turned around to see Dat smiling at him. "I'll help too." Only his legs were temporarily injured and so he was able to help out a little bit.

Meanwhile Haru...

Bang! Crack! Thud! Rumble! Each time his body moved was enough to bring down one enemy.

"Woah!" He couldn't believe at what he was doing.

"This is your potential, Haru. You should learn that earthbending is mighty enough even without learning metalbending."

Haru was in awe. He closed his eyes and tried to memorize every movement and feeling of it.

Jun smiled as he looked at his student.

"Grrrr!" Johnny Tran became frustrated. He had the upperhand before, but now he only had two men left along with him.

"What now?" Jun asked him.

"Ha!" Johnny scoffed. "I'll let you go now. But who knows if you'll be safe afterwards..." He grinned menacingly.

"Hahahahahaha!" Jun started laughing. "The police are probably on their way now to arrest you."

"On what charges?"

"Bloodbending, of course."

"They don't have any evidence!"

"But they do?"

Jun pointed at a camera that's been at the side since earlier.

"That's not even on! Ha!"

"You think so?" Jun confidently grinned at him.

Normally, you would be able to see a red light at the camera's panel to see if it was on, but it was black, meaning it wasn't.

Flick.

Or so they thought so. A piece of tape came off and gently fell to the ground, revealing the red light.

Weeeewooooweeee...

As if on cue, the sirens from the swamp police was heard nearby.