Author Notes: I normally don't write these but this was important, as the description of the story explains this was done for a writing challenge. The prompt selected by 51 votes was the Foaming Mouth Guy versus the Cabbage Merchant. Doing as we can please with the prompt we agreed upon a week's time my opponent finished it in a day while it took me a considerable amount of time. I got bored quick and started to fuck around, anyways with further ado.
My opponent is the very talented and completely whacky and under the influence of cactus juice, MrAFirebender who's normally a regular on AO3.
His story: /works/23472667 (The Foaming Mouth Guy versus the Cabbage Merchant: The Greatest Duel of All Time!)
His fics: /works/20790371/chapters/49410041 (Records of the 53rd Earth Queen, Toph Beifong)
/works/22805290/chapters/54499294 (The Wacky Adventures of the Earth Empress)
Now on with the story!
Bolin and Opal strolled down the streets of Republic City, the tall skyscrapers shone off lights that beat down the streets below. They passed by a few shops and bars, Opal gasped when she saw the Boiling Cabbage.
A restaurant in the downtown area of Republic City, the building was large and wide. The architectural designs of the building were that of Earth Kingdom design, a line had just formed outside. A hostess seated customers table by table in the order the people have arrived.
"How many?" the woman asked, Bolin, rose two fingers and answered, "Just two."
She smiled and led him and Opal toward an empty table near a stage, a waiter greeted the young couple. Both Bolin and Opal were nicely dressed for a nice dinner date, she rested her hand on her face as she skimmed through the menu.
They both ordered food and drinks, a bottle of wine was placed on the table for the couple. A group of men waltzed onto the stage, they had an assortment of instruments. The lead approached the microphone and introduced himself and his band.
"Good evening everyone, we call ourselves Qingbao and the Lion Turtles. We have a little number for you all our hit song," announced Qingbao. Everyone around Bolin begun to clap, the waiter arrived with some alcoholic beverage for Bolin. He drank that and mixed it with the bottle of wine.
"This ballad is about two legends a merchant who sells cabbage and a guy who foams from his mouth," smirked the lead member of the band.
"These men duel it out to the death," he added, then he snapped his fingers. The band had begun to play the next song.
A man pushed a wooden cart full of cabbages off the boat that transported him there. The man was a dark tanned color, middle-aged, with short gray hair, small gray goatee, and hazel eyes.
This man wore a forest green shirt underneath a green tunic that was folded by the waist and held by a green sash. He wore forest green pants and light brown sandals, he always carried a smug look on his face but when it came to cabbages he was a huge softie. The man pushed the cart towards the village of Avatar Kyoshi. He arrived here because the Avatar, a young Air Nomad child and his friends a mixture of different ethnicities were everywhere else in the Earth Kingdom.
Finally, some peace where he was able to settle down and open up shop for all the Kyoshians. The other reason he decided to set up shop here was that Kyoshi Island was known as one of the happiest places on earth five years in a row.
The busy streets of the village have found that there was a new merchant in town. The cabbage merchant had opened up shop. His cabbages were protected by the sun's rays by the small roof that covered them. Several buyers came to browse his cabbages and inquired more about them. Something he was happy to do, the merchant was a cabbage aficionado.
A chubby younger man approached the merchant's cart of cabbages he browsed the goods in the cart. The cabbages were fresh as if they were picked this morning he greeted the merchant, "A new merchant in town welcome, friend."
The man smiled as did the merchant, "What brings you to town?" he questioned the cabbage man.
A younger gentle tall, and lanky, pale-skinned, dark brown hair and brown eyes swaggered through the background. He heard the new merchant insult his hero the Air Nomad Avatar Aang and his friends. He felt offended the man could ever say something negative about Avatar Aang. The Avatar just defeated the Fire Lord last year and ended a century-old war.
"I needed to get away from the Avatar, every time I ran into that imbecile he destroyed my cabbage cart. I heard this place was the happiest town on the planet five years in a row, I had to come here and sell my cabbages," answered the merchant.
The chubby man tossed the merchant a few coins and walked away with three cabbages in hand. The tall lanky fellow who neared the cart wore a light blue long-sleeved shirt and blue trousers, with a navy blue tunic over the long sleeve shirt. The young man wore a light blue bandana that covered the forehead and held his medium-length dashing hair in place.
His face showed a scowl he was dissatisfied with the merchant's comments he made about Avatar Aang. The strange young man-made sounds of disapproval and spoke to the cabbage merchant with an assortment of hand signs. The cabbage merchant spoke the Kingsmen Sign language as it was called, used by an ancient King of Omashu who was a mute. The cabbage merchant got upset at the young man he gasped at what the youngster told him.
"How dare you say that about my cabbages!" he gasped. The guy made threatening hand signs to the merchant and stated that he'd call Avatar Aang right now to destroy the merchant's cabbages and his cart.
"You wouldn't dare!" the merchant shouted, the cabbage merchant placed his finger in anger at the strange mute's chest. The mute lowered his head to stare at the man's finger and squinted his eyes in anger at the cabbage merchant.
Both men have a heated staredown the guy continued to bore his stare into the merchant's soul as a way of intimidation. But then he remembered he was better than the old merchant. The young man pointed at both his eyes and then he flicked his wrist and returned the eye pointing to the older gentleman and stomped away.
All of a sudden a shriek of anger is heard the young man returned furiously and tackled the merchant behind the stand. The merchant squealed like a girl as he was attacked the mute. Both men grappled each other and tried to overpower the other the young man shoved the old merchant to the wall. He pivoted then kicked the cart away from the stand, the merchant freaked out and punched the guy in the stomach. The mute took the blow and coughed for air.
"NOT MY CABBAGES!" screamed the cabbage merchant.
The mute ripped off his clothing and revealed he was wearing a suit of lamellar armor underneath his clothes the entire time. The merchant commented, "You're not the only one with secrets!"
The merchant tore off his tunic and revealed his veiny and muscular abdomen. His areolas were small and dark and his nipples were pointy, a little patch of chest hair between his pectorals in the shape of a cabbage.
The mute extends his arm out and signaled the cabbage man to bring it on both men charged at each other and tossed fists at each other. The cabbage merchant gave the young mute fists of fury while the mute blocked the hits, he crossed his arms and buried his head behind his arms.
The young man used his arms and head to ram the merchant away from him to create space between the two. The cabbage merchant grabbed a cabbage and chomped down on it, a surge of strength from the cabbage increased the muscle mass on his arms. The cabbage gave super strength to the merchant, the mute horrified suddenly started to have seizures.
He foamed at the mouth and was covered in foam a large foamy aura surrounded the foaming mouth guy. His hair was golden and it stood upward, he roared the armor he wore had slight cracks in it. He flew toward the merchant and gave him a huge punch to the face.
The merchant flew a few yards from where he stood, he got up from the ground and dusted himself off. He spat out a tooth, the merchant angrier than ever now, the foaming mouth guy pulled out two cutlasses and brandished them. The merchant didn't care however, he gave the foaming young man a stare. The merchant had a death wish, the frothy mute charged at the merchant with his blades.
The merchant quickly blocked the lunging swords with a shield made out of cabbages. The cutlasses shattered on impact, the frothy mute's hand hurt as the vibration hit them. He stood stunned and staggered a bit, the cabbage connoisseur slammed the foaming young man with his cabbage shield. It knocked the mute a few yards away, the young man coughed and slowly rose to his feet.
The cabbage merchant scanned his environment he noticed a small vase that sat on an aperture. He grabbed it and tossed it at the mute, he had been running out of ideas that he commenced in using the environment around him to fight the foaming mouth guy. The cabbage merchant picked up a ravenous cat owl he threw over at the Foaming Mouth Guy. The screech of the creature echoed in the air as it came claws first at the merchant's opponent.
It began to scratch his face angrily at him he blocked his eyes from the cat owl's talons. The foaming mouth guy wasn't satisfied his face was expressionless, however. While the cat owl distracted the merchant's opponent he snuck around toward the young man, just when the guy got the cat owl off of him. In came a cheap shot an uppercut rocked him in the chin and flung him into the ocean that surrounded the Yokoyan island.
The cabbage merchant dusted himself and his hands he waltzed back toward the town happy as can be. For he was victorious in his battle with the foaming mouth guy. A deafening roar came from the ocean to the west of the cabbage merchant. He covered his ears as they rung with the screech of a behemoth-like sea monster in the distance. When the cabbage merchant turned around he saw the frothing mute atop of a large purple sea monster with eight long large tentacles.
The cabbage merchant's head looked up at the gigantic height of the large Kraken that emerged out of the waters near Kyoshi Island. The cabbage merchant grinned at his opponent because he knew the Foaming Mouth Guy hasn't seen enough. The cabbage merchant stood in a T pose with his arms extended out he held that fearless grin at his opponent.
Cabbages from all over the village of Kyoshi rolled out from their spots and consumed the cabbage merchant. The shadow of the abomination horrifically transformed the Foaming Mouth Guy cackled but then came to a halt when he saw the might of the cabbage monster. The cabbage merchant was in the head of the large monster as if he controlled the water inside the cabbages. It turned out the cabbage man was a waterbender this whole time.
He raised the giant's arms into the air the litter of villagers from the town ran toward the shores to watch the magnificent fight between a giant cabbage monster and a Kraken. The crowd began to cheer for each side the cabbage merchant took a fresh breath and awe of the fans. A giant tentacle slapped the cabbage monster off balance, the monster fell and caused large waves toward the shore that shrunk as they reached land.
The cabbage monster roared and stood up another tentacle tore a leg off of the cabbage monster the vines from the cabbage grew further out to catch the decapitated leg. The leg reattached to its owner the cabbage merchant used the seawater to help reattach parts of the monster. The merchant concentrated on the left arm of the monster and transformed the tip of it from a fist to a cannon.
The Kraken threw more hits at the cabbage monster at the same time, the cabbage monster's cannon produced large cabbage balls that it shot out of the hand cannon. As soon as the cabbages hit the water they exploded. As if the water was a reaction that caused them to explode.
The Kraken punched a hole in the chest of the cabbage monster the hole grew another wall as it sealed shut. The cabbage merchant moved his arms in strange fluid movements as he continued to control the monster he used. He shot another cabbage ball but this time he aimed it into the mouth of the Kraken. It landed on the tongue of the beast and rolled down into its throat. Where the creature then began to choke on the large cabbage, it grabbed its master and threw him very high into the air. The Kraken exploded into smithereens.
The foaming mouth guy could suddenly fly like Zaheer, he roared in the air his eyes changed colors from his normal eye color to a glowing white. His armor shattered and he released large muscles, his trousers were now white pantaloons. He wore a red sash and brown boots. His hair stood upward and it carried an electrifying aura around it, the color of his hair went from dark brown to red. He focused on his opponent and cupped his hands like he was going to release a blast of spirit energy.
He made sounds of intimidation and then foamed at the mouth, the foam that came out was then bent by his hands into several missiles of foam that shot directly at the cabbage beast. Too much damage caused the monster to fall apart. From its remains burst out the cabbage merchant, his aura and hair were green and he stunk of cabbages. He shot up into the air to meet his opponent in the sky.
The Cabbage Merchant and the Foaming Mouth Guy, threw fists and kicks of fury at each other as if they were martial art masters. Both were bruised and beaten the merchant kicked the frothy young mute onto the sands below. A crater is left where he laid the cabbage merchant crossed his arms he knew it was all over.
He floated down to the corpse of his opponent his hair turned back to gray, his hair was no longer upright. He examined the body, the Foaming Mouth Guy's left eye opened a large and powerful foamy beam shot out of his mouth. The cabbage merchant had been flung by the force of the beam into the sky. Sand in all directions spread across the crater the force created by the mute as he shot back into the air.
He roared again his hair turned from a red to a purple color, he was twice the size of muscle mass now. His opponent returned in another form when the cabbage merchant came to punch the foaming mouth guy it didn't break his aura barrier. The mute floated in the air with a smirk, he then shoved the merchant again to create space.
He shouts again, his hair transitioned into a silver color, his aura was more explosive than ever before. Both the Foaming Mouth Guy and Cabbage Merchant collide again their fists crashed into each other. Both men are flung in separate directions as a force of energy knocked them away.
Both men hit the sand hard large craters were formed, smoke emitted from the bodies of both fighters. The Foaming Mouth Guy coughed out a bit of smoke while the cabbage merchant gasped for air.
Both men have a heated staredown the guy continued to bore his stare into the merchant's soul as a way of intimidation. But then he remembered he was better than the old merchant. The young man pointed at both his eyes and then he flicked his wrist and returned the eye pointing to the older gentleman and stomped away.
For a brief second there both men shared the same imaginative fight they had with each other. The epic battle between both never happened, Opal shook her head at Bolin she disapproved of his ugly and rude manners. Bolin interrupted the singing of the men he cackled so hard he slammed the table with his arms.
The men stopped they were confused as to why one of the patrons laughed so hard about a song of love. Bolin never even touched his food all he did was get drunk after five cups of an alcoholic beverage. Opal picked up her drink and tossed its contents at Bolin and she stormed off. Bolin snapped out of it and scanned his surroundings he noticed several were disturbed at his actions.
A waiter minced over to him, "Sir I'm going to have to ask you nicely to leave!" he said.
Bolin frowned and wiped his face of the water, he slouched and clopped out of the restaurant with sadness in his eyes. He careened from side to side a few times and used the tables of other patrons to keep his balance on the way out.
As Bolin clopped out he tried to catch up to Opal but she was already up ahead he leaned against a wall. He saw the CEO of Cabbage Corp, Lau Gan-Lan, he had his hands in his pockets as he strolled down the street he gave the evil eye to a young teenage girl with glasses a bit of foamy residue near her bottom lip. She walked with her friends but when she caught the eye of the older man she too gave an evil stare. They didn't break the stare until they passed each other.