Avatar The Last Airbender Fan Fiction ❯ Avatar: New Century's Dawning ❯ Chapter 6: Full of Surprises ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

bustling monorail station was packed with citizens and visitors; a conspicuous aspect was the buffed up number of Dai Li agents. The long indoor station had an arched ceiling and its walls covered with pictures of the cityscape. A four car monorail just entered the station slowing coming to a halt with a low boom that pulsed over the blurring sound of the crowd. The car doors opened and passengers poured out. The last car was a freight train with wider doors and a small ramp that just reached the ledge of the platform. The wide doors slid open to reveal two wide pushcarts carrying barrels covered in various safety labels. Each cart was pushed by an individual man, young university students (you could tell by their cylinder hats with the university insignia on the front). There was also a third, less occupied student following behind, his mocha colored hair exposed around his hat. His hands folded underneath his long sleeves. He kept a stiff posture looking straight ahead while trailing the other two students with the pushcarts, making their way through the mass of people. Only his dark gray eyes scanned the perimeter in all directions, counting every agent and guard on sight. To their convenience, their load of barrels were inspected at the previous station, before having them loaded onboard, so the students were able to pass through their departure with little trouble.

Walking down to the nearest exit, there was a balcony leading outside. At the edge of the balcony were large stone platforms, each with a man standing patiently on it. The trio of students continued forward until they stood on top of one of the platforms. They stood high above the ground, catching a vast view of the barren yet serene landscape that stretched throughout the western side of the city. The platform operator gave the three students a nod as he began to widen his stand and spread out his arms. The platform began to shake as it started a steady descend to the bottom of the wall, the echoes of the crowd dissipating from their ears.

Reaching to the bottom of the wall, the platform made a smooth stop onto the ground. Pushing the carts off the platform the three students tipped the operator carried on their way. They walked through a wide street outlined with various merchant kiosks and food stalls. For a shabby looking marketplace, the businesses made extensive profit here, either from hungry and weary travelers coming to the city or guests and residents packing supplies to leave. It was forbidden to set up business booths in the station, taking up too mush space, so the outside of the wall was the next best spot. But the three students didn’t need to gather any goods. Soon they’ll have all their needs accounted for upon reaching the convoy to transport the barrels of various chemicals.

Arriving at the edge of the marketplace the students caught sight of three ostrich-horse drawn wagons parked along side a dirt path. Standing near the wagons were two Earth soldiers uniform, one was a tall man. Being barefoot, he was most likely an earthbender. The other soldier was shorter, and in fact a female; her feminine curves a dead giveaway. She was armed with a naginata; the pole was as long as her own height and a single edged blade protruding from the top. She kept her face hidden under her wide conical hat. Only for a brief moment did she look up flashing her eyes to the three students. She kept quiet and let her comrade do all that talking, “So you three have the paperwork for the cargo.” The student leading unveiled a note from his inside his shirt and handed it to the soldier. Right then the gray eyed student stepped forward and handed the same guard another note. “I am to be supervising a special order from this batch through New Serpent’s Pass.

The female soldier kept her head tiled forward as she responded, “You’ll be coming with me then, sir.” She finally looked up, her green eyes making contact with his own.

***

With specified barrels loaded in the wagon and gray eyed student sat beside the female soldier who was holding the reins of the two ostrich-horses pulling the wagon through the narrow canyon opening just outside the outer wall. There was a bit of traffic with several other wagons ahead and one right behind them. The two both looked forward and kept quiet. The soldier finally gave in with a grin as she sniggered faintly, “Well Eason, long time no see.” She shifted her glance toward him.

“Chi, it’s sure a pleasant surprise to see you.” Eason replied as he took off the university robe, “Of all people, I wouldn’t expect you would be playing Roe’s little delivery girl.”

“Well you know how this job works more than I do. Because the raids are concentrated down south of the continent, I’m stuck here for a while until Jagmohan’s guys decide to start the attacks back up north. But enough about that,” She removed her hat, her dark hair fastened in to pigtails. “You gotta tell me how you got through the palace and nabbed all the goods at one shot.”

Eason raised an eyebrow, “Now how do you know about me getting into the palace? And how do you even know of my mission? You’re still trying to stalk me aren’t you. Happen to overhear a conversation about me or something?”

Chi’s grin only widened, “Of course you think I’d miss you that much. But no. Roe gave me a heads up from a messenger hawk he sent early in the morning.”

Eason turned around looking into the concealed wagon. Popping open one of the barrels, he reached in and grabbed out a familiar sac, “Good, then you know how important it is I get this to Jagmohan as soon as possible. This’ll make me quite the bundle.”

Chi rolled her eyes, “Jeez, and I wonder where you’re going to spend all that money. You’ve got such one track mind. And you know now that I know about and that stuff is in my wagon, Jagmohan’s going to hold me responsible for it along with you.”

He chuckled sardonically, “Roe said something like that too. But don’t I plan to get this stuff to him as soon as possible.”

Chi smiled, then slickly leaned onto Eason’s side. “Eason, you know I can tolerate your trouble. But you…I’m sure you can spare a night or two. It’s been such a while since we’ve seen each other and spent some quality time.”

“Oh,” Eason peered his eyes at Chi’s, “…so who has a one track mind?”

Eason gave a slight twitch when Chi clasped her hand onto Eason’s thigh, “I swear Eason, you can be so flattering to the ladies.”

Eason drew his face closer to hers, “…I know.”

A loud whistling screeched through the air, breaking the moment. “The hell was that?!”

The two scanned across the scene. Looking up, Eason’s caught sight of a vertical stream of smoke in the sky from a fired flare. He stood up from his seat and held on to the wagon’s rim as he peered around the side.
“It was flare!” He called out. It had been fired from a wagon trailing from behind. But what seemed odd was that no one was on the wagon; it was vacant, left for two ostrich-horses to continue pulling it.

“Whoooah!” Eason heard Chi cried. He turned back to see Chi had disappeared.

“Eason!” Chi’s voice shouted. Eason yanked back on the reins to halt the ostrich-horses and jumped off the wagon. Veering his head in all directions he stood his ground when saw a Chi fighting a cloaked man a distance behind. Chi stood back, knife at hand.

“Chi!” Called out to get her attention. When she turned to him, Eason threw her naginata that she left on he wagon. The rugged man, armed with a curved single edged sword, wore faded brown clothes, with his forearms and calves covering in white binding. The hood of his brown cloak draped over his forehead. No doubt he’s a native from the Si Wong badlands.

“So you wanna play dirty” Eason rubbed his hands. He figured he’d make this challenging and fight at close range. He dashed straight toward the desert man to get his attention. The bandit slid his free hand into his cloak before flinging a trio of daggers headed towards Eason.

Eason arrested his pace. Timing it right, Eason barely evaded the projected knifes. But upon sidestepping from them, he aimed his hands at the knifes and caught them within an air current. Then twisting his body the daggers made a swift u-turn around him, redirected towards the desert man.

Swinging his sword, the desert man blocked the daggers at ease. But to Eason’s surprise, the man disregarded him and instead charged toward Chi. Eason was agitated, “You did not just ignore me!” Though before he could race toward the man, Eason looked up in the sky as a large shadow suddenly swept over the canyon.

The shadow returned, this time soaring just over the ground within the gorge heading straight towards him. Eason stared at the large eyes of the flying serpent. Its massive jaws opened wide, exposing a red fiery glow gleaming in its throat.

As the serpent fired its scorching breath, Eason whirled his body, slightly hovering above the ground. Strong winds swirled around him in a tight ball. As the rumbling dragon fire consumed the spinning air globe, the flames swirled around the current. The flamethrower subsided, leaving the spherical winds as a spinning inferno. But in an instant the roaring flames around the airbender extinguished as the ball inflated and the winds dissipated revealing an unscathed Eason frozen from his rotary motion.

His eyes followed the dragon which swooped over his head and flew off into the distance. Again he felt completely enraged by suddenly being disregarded.

Eason then felt a distinct heat behind him, paired with an oncoming roar. Eason bent his knees and turned around. Upon doing so he flung his arms high unleashing an upward torrent of air deflecting the fire blast.

Eason stood his ground as he peered at a firebender in uniform. To the side of his vision he saw an Earth guard aiding the bandit against Chi. They must’ve been hitching a ride on the dragon.

Huh. So the desert man had reinforcements.

***

Zai held a firm stance; his legs spread out, arms in front of him, palms open. His gaze was locked on his target. This was it. The moment he had been waiting for - meeting the infamous Firestorm face to face. This was his chance to finally apprehend the Firestorm, the man responsible for further fueling the rebels to continue their onslaught to destroy the lives of the innocent, as well as their own brethren.

His hands ignited in flames just by the thought. But he quickly became aware of his burst of excitement, and calmed himself, the scanning the area. In the gorge, it was fairly narrow. His partner, Govind, as well as Hanara who were both fighting the Firestorm’s comrade, would be in the hazard zone. Zai aimed his palms to the ground. He jumped high in the air, the flames from his hands providing thrust, and scaled the wall of the gorge. He reached the flat top were several rocky monuments towered around the scene. Zai turned around only to see the Firestorm had beat him to the wide ledge standing a yards away from him.

The Firestorm addressed Zai, “You’re not going to runaway from me too, are you?”

Zai gritted his teeth, “Don’t count on it!” He readied his stance, pacing his breaths. Firestorm just stood there in a relaxed posture, obviously waiting for him to strike first. Zai didn’t hesitate with the offer; he stomped forward as he launched a punch, firing a massive fire blast straight toward the airbender. Firestorm effortlessly evaded the flame, slipping to the side. Zai stomped sideways as he shot another blast, followed by another.

Firestorm waved his right arm deflecting the first shot, then gave a quick sidestepped away from the last. He gave a bored stare at Zai, “Please don’t tell me that’s all you have.”

Zai responded with another stomp forward punching another ball of fire at the airbender. Again the airbender eluded the blast with ease. Zai, who held his firing stance, only smirked as he drew his fist back. By doing so the evaded fire blast ricocheted backwards in midair, heading back towards the Firestorm. Surprised, the airbender only realized this at the last minute when he turned to slap the blast with a quick gust barely deflecting it. He turned to Zai, giving his arm a shake from the mild burn on his wrist. The Firestorm grinned at Zai, “So ya do have trick or up your sleeve.”

Zai yelled back, “Oh I have more than that!” He crossed his arms in front of him, then flicked them to his sides, creating a swirling halo of fire around his body. Taking in a deep breath, the circling flames grew and expanded. Zai took in other deep breath as he then tensely flexed his arms, breaking the halo into a dozen fireballs swirling around Zai in all directions. The Firestorm stood his ground coolly, probably amused by the light show.

Zai pitched his hand forward, commanding one of the revolving fireballs to shoot forward. But instead of aiming straight to Firestorm, the projectile was descending to his feet. The Firestorm simply stepped back but then was blown back forcefully as the fireball had exploded upon impact. The Firestorm managed to flipped back on his feet, but before he realized what had happened, several flames were already raining down upon him, whistling through the air. The airbender, finally had no choice but to perform serious evasive maneuvers, back flipping and jumping away from the impacts. Each impact discharged a small yet powerful explosion.

As Zai fired off the last shots, keeping his adversary busy, he wasted no time and charged forward, his hands set aflame. He had to keep his offensive on a roll; he couldn’t afford to lose it. The Firestorm had just dodged the last flying explosive when Zai started hurling a series of flaming projectiles to further overwhelm his opponent. Now all Zai could see in front of him was a large cloud of smoke, the Firestorm somewhere within. Zai wasn’t going to take any chances; he halted his pace as he snapped his hands together, reeling them back to his side while inhaling deeply charging for his next attack. He shouted aloud has he hurled both arms forward unleashing a massive flamethrower that engulfed the entire smokescreen. Several seconds passed before Zai ceased his powerful attack. His torso slumped forward as he was catching his breath. The gray haze quickly dissipated and Zai kept his eyes peering through, in hopes of looking at his downed opponent. But his eyes widened in alarm as he saw…nothing. Eyes scanning, he turned his head left, then right, and then up…he was up! The Firestorm was high in the air, descending from his high evasive jump.

Zai stumbled back as the Firestorm was falling right towards him. Zai performed a back flip just barely dodging Firestorm’s flying kick. But once the airbender landed and he gave an swift underhand lob sending a powerful gale unto Zai before he could even touch ground. The young noble was hurled through the air, slamming onto a rock wall before collapsing onto the ground. Ignoring the sudden aches coursing through his body, the firebender slowly got himself to his feet. He looking ahead, his eyes slowly focused on his target. The Firestorm, standing a distance away, didn’t seem fazed one bit; only several burned holes on his pants. Making strong eye contact the firestorm simply uttered, “Alrighty. It’s my turn.”

This was not good for Zai. For a firebender he was in a pretty tough situation; he was going to take the defensive. At least he’s a good sport, Zai amused himself of the thought. It seemed the airbender wasn’t going to strike till he was ready. Inhaling deeply Zai stood up in his position. Looking at the Firestorm, there was something that seemed peculiar to Zai. The air bender…was taking a firebender’s stance. The Firestorm made his move; while stomping forward, the airbender gave a strong forward punch.

At that moment, Zai’s only reaction was to dodge, jump away from aim. A piercing boom cracked through the air as the wall that Zai was once standing in front of exploded. Zai tumbled to the ground from the blast force of the attack. Almost shaken he flipped to his feet and turned to the airbender. Thunder?! Did he just make thunder!…without lightning?! Zai wasn’t at all sure what had just happened. The only thing he was sure of was that he could not afford to hit by such an attack. Checking his surroundings he was pressed near the side of another cliff wall.

Making another strong step, the Firestorm thrust another punch, but this time aiming above Zai. The only thing Zai can could see of the fired attack was an invisible blast that warped the air around it. The blast moved at such an incredible speed it made Zai wonder, for a second, if he was seeing things. But he knew it wasn’t an illusion for he could hear its presence more than anything, an loud earsplitting shriek ending with a thunderous explosion upon impact. The blast crashed at the side of the wall overhead of Zai, breaking off massive boulders. Zai dived out to safety away from the plunging stones. The firebender tumbled onto his feet, quickly pummeling a swift blast of fire toward his foe. The airbender simply repeated his attack. The thundering shockwave pierced through and dispelled the fire attack, streaking right toward Zai. Again Zai barely dodged the deafening shockwave, flown back by the explosive force. Zai tried to get back up, but the ringing in his ears stung to the point that his eyes twitched, and his balance was distorted. He managed to get on his knees when he heard of whip of air closing in on him.

Zai bellowed in pain as his right forearm was slashed by an air slicing attack. Blood oozing from the long cut, Zai hugged his arm close to his stomach. This wasn’t happening - this wasn’t suppose to happen! He barely heard footsteps approaching him over the chime in his ears. Looking to the side he saw the Firestorm standing before him.

“Congratulations,” The airbender called out, “You’re the first guy to ever dodge to that good ol’ trick of mine. And more than once at that. But gosh, exposed to that intensity of sound, your ears must be killing you. You know, I have you firebenders to thank for learning that move. Yup, all ya need is a different attitude…and you can do anything with your element. Heh, or at least my element.”

Zai was only half paying attention. Frustration grew within him. His enemy was standing right next to him, just talking. He had to get up. He had to finish off the Firestorm now. He had to…

“Eason!” a voice echoed out from the distance. Zai didn’t know who’s voice it was or where it came from, but the Firestorm seemed to recognize it. “Eason! The supplies!”

“Ah crap!” The airbender exclaimed aloud, putting his hand on his forehead. Zai was baffled as the Firestorm turned around. Zai listened to his departing words, “I have high hopes for ya. I have a feeling we’ll meet again.” And with that said the airbender took off.