Successors to the Blue Spirit: The billboard at the crossroads
By Violent Vi


Sixteen (16) years after the Battle of the Black Sun

The billboard sat at the crossroads to nowhere.

There were a few announcements regarding festivals, chicken-pigs for sale, and upcoming events, but the majority of the space was dedicated to the wanted posters.

The usual posters showing the images of local bad boys who gone too far in the pursuit of fun and coin graced the billboard. However, one image had central billing. The blue and gray visage of a demon leered at all who passed.

To the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes, the Blue Spirit was the ultimate demon.

The mysterious masked-figure had robbed from most of the noble and merchant families of the Earth Kingdom. The assassin killed dozens of Earth Kingdom officials and hundreds of merchants who bought and sold slaves. The theft had stolen the ransom of kings many times over. Hundreds of bounty figures who sought the elusive predator only found humiliation at the hands of the laughing oni (demon). Not even the legendary Jun the Bounty Hunter with her shirshu, Nyla, would track down the elusive assassin.

When the Blue Spirit stole the jade crown of the Ba Sing Se, the 52nd King, Kuei, pardoned the old Dai Li and sent them to hunt down the Blue Spirit. Three months later, a shipment of chamber pots arrived with the ashes of the Dai Li mixed with the night soil. According to rumors, the Blue Spirit later paid the Kuei a personal visit and spanked the king with flat side of his swords. Since then, the Earth King kept a dozen guards in his room as he slept.

To the Water Tribes, the Blue Spirit was the unstoppable terror. They feared him as much at their sailors feared that black and white whales that prey upon all other creatures in the water.

Twice, the Blue Spirit graced the Northern Water Tribe by violating their Holy of Holies, the Spirit Shrine.

The first time, the Blue Spirit merely took two vials of water from the Spirit Oasis. The second time, he proved that not even a regiment of determined Northern Water Tribe warriors and elite water benders were capable of stopping him. The world heard the outcry of the Northern Water Tribe upon finding a mask at the Spirit Oasis along with the Spirits of the Moon and Ocean swimming in a fishbowl. A note sat nearby taunting that the next time the Northern Water Tribe talked about exterminating the remnants of the Fire Nation, he would partake of carp sushi.

There were many legends of how the Blue Spirit eluded superior forces and defeated the best of his foes.

Only once was the Blue Spirit defeated.

The Blue Spirit had sought out the life of Sokka the Destroyer during the dark mid-Winter days of the Southern Antarctic. The pair fought. Sokka was grievously wounded by the Blue Spirits. Only the quick response of the Southern Tribe warriors that prevented Blue Spirit's separation of Sokka's head from his body. As much as the Blue Spirit wished to end the life of the man who masterminded the destruction of the Fire Nation, he fled as the defeat of the Blue Spirit would end the hopes of many.

To the slaves who were once Fire Nation citizens and their children, the Blue Spirit was their hero, their avatar, their leader in the quest for freedom and one day vengeance.

Breastfeeding slave mothers would whisper tales of his exploits as their children suckled. In the middle of the night, fathers, exhausted from laboring under the harsh taskmasters, would wake their children and secretly teach them the fighting arts of the disbanded nation in hopes that one day, the children would be worthy of the Blue Spirit's efforts to free them. The Blue Spirit was the living embodiment of an enslaved race's dream of freedom. He was the wild fire that no amount of earth, wind, and water would ever contain. He was their leader in exile.

The world knew of the Blue Spirit. However, only one man knew the identity of the man behind the mask. That man was far too cagey to ever admit to being the most wanted man on this world.

Li Jian waited impatiently for his paternal cousin and twin sister to catch up.

"Uncle would be mad if we're not home by sundown," the fifteen-year-old lad muttered as he contemplated angst and how the world would be better if he could kill all the happy-cheerful people.

"Turn that found upside down and smile, cousin," Li Ying replied.

"What's the matter, brother? Did mommy take away your stuffed monkey-lizard or…"

Lian could not resist the urge taunt her twin.

"Lian, stop it now, or else…"

Li Lian back flipped into a single-arm handstand on her right hand and smiled at her older (by two minutes) brother, "Oophs, got to remember to frown when I'm upside down!"

Ying shook her head at her cousins. Jian and Lian were opposite in temperaments.

Lian was so energetic and bouncy that she could even wear down Aunt Ty, the original bouncy girl.

Jian was so dark, so meh, that he could suck all the fun out of a carnival by walking by in the next district over. Jian was much too like Ying's uncle Li – Far too serious and all too ready to embrace the angst. While he could be as acrobatic as his sister, Jian simply did not do flips for fun. The only fun Jian ever had was practicing his swords, throwing his daggers, fire bending, or pulling a practical joke on some unsuspecting fool. Even when Jian had fun, he did not smile. At best, he had an unnatural smirk that inspired feeling of terror rather than reassurance.

Lian was so pink, bubbly, and bouncy. Her head was seemingly filled by air. She talked about fashion, boys, and auras for hours on end. Half the time, she was upside down, walking on her hands, or hanging from a tree.

The only time the pair ever got along was when an outsider picked on one of them. Otherwise the pair spent their time driving one another nuts.

Ying was their older, by three months, but still older cousin. Being the oldest of her generation, she was tasked with keeping the twins and their twelve, going on thirteen siblings in line.

Ying often wondered how did a downer like Uncle Li ever manage to attract a bubbly, former circus acrobat turned aura reader like Aunt Ty.

A part of her wondered if her aunt and uncle were stuck together in a locked room and left to fester until the unresolved sexual tension spilled over into a relationship filled with snarking and episodes of violent love-hate sex. Ying knew that Uncle Li and Aunt Ty were not officially married until three months before the twins were born. If the twins were not brother and sister, Ying would have predicted on the pair hooking up and ending up as husband and wife. They sure fought like they were a married couple.

For all the weirdness and conflict in the lives of her aunt and uncle, at least the story of how the twins came to be had a happy ending. Ying's origin story was anything but happy.

Lian stuck out her pink tongue, rolled her eyes, and made a circling motion with her left index finger by her ear.

"Jian, I know why you are in a rush…Don't you want to kiss Joo-Wook…Isn't she your…sunrise? Don't you miss swirling your tongues together?"

Ying shuddered. Joo-Wook was the ugly girl turned village cart...it seems everyone had a ride on her despite the fat, hairy upper lip, and general lack of hygiene.

Jian took in a deep breath, looked around to ensure that there would be no witnesses. He then threw a small fire blast at his sister.

Lian simply cartwheeled to her left and avoided the blast.

"Temper…temper, Jian." Lian taunted as she deftly avoided the flames.

Jian snapped back, "Take that back little sister. I would rather castrate myself and commit seppuku (ritual suicide via disembowelment) without a second to end my pain rather than kiss that fat pig-cow again."

"Again…" Ying muttered out loud. This was a new development. Her cousin the angst-filled kissing the village cart.

Jian gave his cousin his trademarked "If you speak of it, I will invent new, interesting, and painful ways to torture you for the rest of eternity" glare.

"It was dark, I had some of Uncle Jee's sake, and I though it was Junai!" Jian spat out with venomous tone as he unsuccessfully tried to make the incident go away.

Lian could not resist the golden opportunity and sang out, "Joo-Wook and Jian kissing in a tree, my oh my what a mess it will be. First comes love, forget the marriage, here comes the ugly pig in a baby carriage."

Jian screamed in anger as he threw several blasts at this sister.

Ying quickly swung her right fist into the back of Jian's head and knocked him to the ground.

"Stop it. If an Earth Kingdom patrol saw you, they would lock you up in an exposure cage and place the rest of us on the slave blocks."

Someone had to snap hothead back into reality.

"Besides, didn't uncle tell you that I'm in charge. Remember the incident in Jinhae. If you two want to fight so badly, hold an Angi Kai in the practice chamber back home."

Jian took a deep breath as he looked up at his cousin.

"You are right. Besides, Lian does not stand a chance of winning when we fight in enclosed spaces. Thank you…However…"

"I know…it never happened…except in Lian's imagination," Ying promised. "Now get up off the ground."

Jian stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes.

Ying hated being the oldest, sometimes. Since she was three months older than the twins, her aunt and uncle expected her to babysit these two when they went into town to get the supplies. If she was Uncle Li, she would have drowned the pair at birth and raised chicken-pigs. At least the chicken-pigs were good for eggs, meat, and milk.

Ying blew an errant lock of hair aside.

Ying looked nothing like her cousins. She inherited the mocha complexion and blue eyes from her sire...some unknown Water Tribe rapist. The only thing she had in common with her cousins was the ability to bend fire. The problem was that no matter how hard she worked, she had to fight the fire to get it to do her will.

Lian was a prodigy with both fire and her bow.

Jian was gifted with fire, dual swords, and thrown weapons.

All Ying seemingly had was an anger-fueled, mean right-hook, and the ability to sputter fire from the ends of her first. It worked but it was unreliable and was not as cool and launching a twenty-five cloth-yard long stream of fire like her uncle could.

Damn Water Tribe blood. It interferes with my fire bending.

Ying hated the Water Tribe. Not disliked...not loathed...but actively hated the bastard with all her being.

It was that Water Tribe bastard, Sokka, that exiled and enslaved the populace of the Fire Nation. It was one of the barbarian Southern Water Tribesmen who raped her mother and ensured that Ying would have polluted blood.

Ying remembered that as a child she prayed to Agni that she would ever become some slimy, fish-scaled water-bender. She refused to be near water. At six, she refused to bath knowing that if water ever touched her that she would lose her fire bending powers. At eight, Uncle Li had to drag her out on a boat in the middle of a lake and toss her out before Ying learned to swim.

Ying hated the Water Tribes so much that every night she prayed to Angi to forgive her polluted blood and give her the strength to burn every filthy Southern Water Tribe bastard. She wanted to find Daddy Dearest and introduce him to a painful fire enema.

The thunk of one of Jian's daggers sticking into the billboard snapped Ying out of her dream of hearing Daddy Dearest's screams of pain during his sixteen-hour castration. It was the sixth such dagger impaling the face of another local bandit.

"Scum doesn't deserve to be on the same billboard as the Blue Spirit," Jian spat as he flicked another dagger towards one of the other images. "One day, we will seek out the Blue Spirit and become his apprentice. I will be Bai Hu, the White Tiger of the West…"

"I will be Quin Long, the Azure Dragon of the East," Lian added.

"Together, we will topple the Earth Kingdoms and Water Tribes from their perch," the twin simultaneously chanted as the pair performed an advanced acrobatic fire-bending kata.

"Just whom am I suppose to be…" Ying asked.

The pair looked at one another and nodded.

"Why, you're Xuan Wu, the mysterious Warrior of the North, who with her mean right hook and icy claws, could knock down and unman even the most foolhardy of Water Tribe scum."

Damn twin-mode…it's creepy how they could synchronize their speeches. They must have practice sessions to get this good...but there was no way that they could coordinate things so well without some kind of psychic power.

Ying looked at the pair and shook her head. They made it far too easy. They obviously could read each other's mind, but they could not read hers.

"Last one home gets to clean out the pig-chicken coops tomorrow."

The pair of twins started to run do the road. No one wanted that chore.

Suddenly the pair tripped and fell flat on their faces. Ying was riding on the ostrich-horse and sauntered by at a leisurely pace.

"You two have to untie yourselves first. Oh…do not even think of burning the rope. It was on uncle's shopping list. Oh yes, don't forget to drag the cart with you."

Ying imaged that the twin's screams of outrage could be heard all the way in Ba Sing Se. When the twin were busy fighting and screaming at one another, Ying had carefully looped the rope to the twins and tied it off to the Ostrich Horse cart. She could not wait to get home and sip on a lemonade while watching the twins huff and puff as they drag the wagon home.

Sure the twins had talent, but they were still second best to Ying, the best prankster, this side of Ba Sing Se.