The fourteen year old boy was looking around the iron fortress-like chamber of the Fire nation, the citizens had shocked and disgusted looks on their faces, some were whispering, others were staring but the boy couldn't keep his eyes and attention on the elders, all of the had turned on him and he was ready to face banishment;
"Yoh Hikaru you are brought here today, under the jurisdiction of the elders of the Fire nation, as higher elder I have called this meeting in order, you are hear by banished from the fire nation taking the next ship, which leaves in three hours to the Earth Kingdom port of Kyushu, you are banished for the crime of attacking and destroying a sacred and powerful item in the sanctum of fire, so you shall be deemed to a new life and never return" said the elder looking up from the scroll
"I have something to say… I didn't do it!" he exclaimed,
But the elder sighed and gestured him to leave;
"this isn't fair!" he shouted bashing his fist hard on the sheering cold steel of the S.S. Tidal, "I know I didn't do it!" he yelled out, no one was around, he waited and waited hoping for a miracle to occur but nothing happened.
He boarded the boat and looked out to the small speck of black ashy land he knew as home, he had no relatives and provided for himself, Yoh went to his cabin in the ship to find a box of Firebending scrolls and an iron chest beside it, he pondered at the scene, and he eventually opened the iron chest to see a traditional Ju Long uniform and almost immediately put it on, a midnight black sleeveless shirt with an orange orb as the logo, two orange gloves which covered just below his elbow to the end of his palm, an orange belt and midnight black baggy pants , Yoh flexed his hands and muscles, he felt invigorated with stamina and strength,
"whoa…" Yoh muttered
as he looked in the mirror; Yoh took out the scrolls and peered at them, he got to the bottom of the box and found a letter.
Dear Yoh Hikaru,
I once knew your father, he'd be very proud of you, I am Kasai, a Firebending master, and I hear by degree you a master Fire bender, open up the slip bellow and you have proof; you're father would be indeed very proud of you and I'm glad to finally have the chance to give you the outfit your father wore, wear it with pride and honor.
From Kasai.
"Well I'm going to see what I can find father" he said clutching the letter close.
The next few days were vigorous, storms, men over board and other accidents. Yoh slowly walked off and examined the areas around him, a small village; he spotted an unlikely traveler selling cabbages, tomatoes, cactus melon, mangoes and papayas and eventually saw the thick lush green forest surrounding the wide open plain,
"This town has nothing to offer us" muttered Yoh to himself, 'I really think I should move on' he thought to himself, cautiously watching the passer-biers of the village, without hesitation he walked on through into the forest.
"He's been asleep for nearly four days, how do we know he's even awake!" exclaimed the water tribe warrior examining the area for any signs of the enemy and suddenly heard his sister burst into even more tears,
"Good one Sokka!" shouted a blind Earthbender who punching him hard in the arm,
He cried out "what was that for!" rubbing it softly,
"Can't you see she's upset!" she cried out,
"Well sorry Toph, I'm just pointing out the obvious okay" he said in a boring tone,
The Earthbender just glared at him thinking about punching him again, "Katara, the fire nation could be here any minute" said Sokka desperately trying to convince his sister, he got no reply and turned back to Toph who was watching around,
"What's up?" Sokka asked, "Someone's here" she said suddenly turning and kicking down hard,
Sokka saw someone rise up on a pillar of churned earth but jumped acrobatically and landed on a nearby tree,
"Where'd it go?!" she asked, "um… it's in a tree" he said drawing out his boomerangs, the boy jumped down and found his way over to the camp, "what was that for?" he asked,
"How'd you prepare for that attack?" asked Toph cautiously,
"More importantly who are you?!" Sokka demanded, "are you two honestly gonna bother?" he asked mockingly, hearing this remark Toph sprang forward slamming her foot in the ground and raising one hand so a clump of earth entrapped the mysterious boy and stopped at his shoulder,
"Southern praying mantis I see" said Yoh, who suddenly closed his eyes as crimson orange cracks began to break the earthen prison apart, and with a small explosion of orange, red and yellow the boy stood there free from his prison,
Toph was completely shocked, "are you gunna let me explain or what?" he asked,
"You could be fire nation!" shouted Sokka, Yoh glared at him, "you… do you honestly think every fire nation civilian is evil?!" asked Yoh angrily, Sokka hesitated and nodded enthusiastically trying to make the boy angry but soon realised it was a bad idea as he flexed his hands as static lightning began to hop around them,
"yes, yes I do" he said, the bolt seized, "well now that's settled are you gunna let me explain and invite me in or not?" he asked, Sokka stared at him, ""okay come on" he said walking towards the fire in the center, it was dull and almost burnt out,
Yoh pressed out two fingers a small ball of fire exploded from the two fingers and into the fire making it erupt with violent fire, "next time warn me" begged Sokka,
"you do realise that I'm not telling you zip unless you tell me who you people are and what are you here for?" he asked, Sokka sighed, "very well, "I'm Sokka, that's Toph, Katara and Aang" he said pointing to his companions,
"Katara and I met Aang at the south pole, we soon found out shortly after that he was the Avatar" he explained, Yoh looked towards the mysterious and fallen monk with a tattoo of an arrow on his forehead,
"then we met Toph in Gaoling, we just barely escaped from Ba Sing Se and we wound up here and met you… whoever you are" said Sokka,
Yoh looked away from the monk and turned his attention on Sokka, "I'm Yoh, yes as you know I'm a Firebender, I was born in the fire nation, raised there too until that day… I was five when Firebenders raided our house, they killed my sister, my mother, my grandparents were there at the time and they got murdered too, they took my father unwillingly to war, the next ten years were gruesome, training, begging, stealing, basically fending for myself, until I learnt to harness my so called special ability, sensing Chi energy, that's how I was able to determine her attack" said Yoh, "Ju Long is an advanced method of fighting, a mixture of Chi energies, bending and a lot of hand to hand combat fighting, after that, well I began to advance further than expected and lost control, when I get too angry I lose absolute control and run about on a violent rampage, that's when I believed to have completely destroyed the stupid artifact in the stupid sanctum of fire and got banished, and then a wound up here meeting you lot, now if you'll excuse me" he said,
at that moment Toph and Yoh sensed something in the bushes and took fighting stance, "I'm curious: if you're blind, how do you see?" asked Yoh waiting patiently,
"I feel vibrations" she replied, at the moment she finished the sentence and blast of quick blast of fire set alight and aimed straight for Katara,
Yoh raised a hand as she looked up at the violent mess of hot flame ready to engulf her but the fire dispersed into smoke, the same thing happened again but Yoh dived in front and took the impact, and fell to the ground painfully behind her,
Katara had a shocked looked on her face as he had taken the blast, she turned and saw smoke coming from her savior, this time Sokka joined in taking fighting position, but ten Firebenders surrounded them in a circle, "we can't hold all of them off by ourselves" shouted Sokka,
Suddenly Yoh stood back up and mockingly swept away some dust on his shirt, "not bad, but not good either" he said lunging out several punches in all directions knocking over several of them, and advanced by crouching and kicking out as a trail of fire followed his movements hitting the next and made two cutting actions with his hands knocking two more out, Yoh turned to the frightened and weak Firebender, who quickly ran into the forest, Sokka and Toph just looked at him shocked,
"what?" he asked, the two companions saw a jet of fire being launched into the sky as it exploded Yoh walked over to the monk and the tearful girl both in tattered robes, "hmmm… how deep's the cut?" asked Yoh,
Katara continued grieving over the monk, "I can help" he said, "you're just a Firebender, what can you do?!" she demanded, but halted and shuffled over to make room for Yoh, he placed his hands above the scar and inhaled as orange waves of chi energy erupted from his hands and slowly extracted themselves to the scar as the skin suddenly began to regenerate itself Katara gasped in shock as the wound finally finished rejuvenating, she heard a groan from the monk,
"Aang!, are you okay?" she asked rushing to his side once more, Yoh began to walk from the scene, "wait!... where are you going?" Sokka asked,
"Well duh… I'm surprised she can't figure it out" he said grinning and walking into the bush,
Toph burst into shock, "looks like the fire nation are going in for drastic measures" she said shocked, "what's the matter?!" Sokka demanded, "He's basically going to kill himself, there's at least 1000 fire benders there!" she exclaimed,
Aang limped over with the aid of Katara, "who's going to die?" he asked, "the Firebender, Yoh the one who just saved your behind" snapped Toph,
"Aang we have to go after him!" cried out Sokka, but without any thought Aang began to accelerate towards his savior and his friend.