Aang entered the holding in Vienna and a few soldiers gave him weird looks but he was surrounded by an armed guard along with his friends. Aang walked up the stairs and opened the doors.
Some of the leaders stood up and looked at him. Aang felt overwhelmed for a second but smiled. There were so many people. All these people were the leaders of their own separate nation.
"So, you're the avatar. We were told of your arrival. May I ask what the avatar is?" A man who stood up asked. Aang looked at the man and looked down realizing the name of the nation was written. 'German Empire' he read.
"The avatar is the person who is supposed to keep my world and another world called the spirit world in balance. I'm the link between these two worlds. And I've come here to warn you." Someone in the back chuckled. Aang looked and saw it was a man who never stood for him from a nation called 'The Soviet Union'.
"So are you a political leader?" The man asked. "No, there is no one for me to be a political leader of. My nation was genocided by the Fire Nation. I'm the person who is meant to keep the peace. It's a role that's passed down to a random person after the previous avatar died. I did not choose to be in this role." Aang said. "If it takes conflict to keep the peace, then so be it."
"Is that the only way to deal with the Fire Nation?" The man from the Poland area asked. "I am not an expert when it comes to Fire Nation policy." Aang said. "Then who is?" Asked the German leader.
"My Fire element teacher. His name is Zuko. He was, was the crown prince of the Fire Nation. He was banished first because he objected to a unit of Fire Nation soldiers being used as bait and all of them dying in the process. Then he became a traitor but became prince again. Then became a traitor again when he told his father he was going to join me." Aang said. "Can we trust him?" Asked the man from Turkey.
"I trust him with my life." Aang said before stepping to the side and Zuko. Zuko looked at them all, he was used to dealing with old men but these men looked at him with a bit of respect, at least most of them did. The man from the Soviet Union did not.
"Hi, Zuko here." He said waving. The person from Portugal and the United States waved back. "So the Fire Nation has been at war for the past 100 years in the war that has engulfed our world for 100 years. The war ended about 2 years ago with the Fall of Ba Sing Se and the surrender of the Water Tribes." Zuko said. "How does the government and war staff act?" The man from France asked.
"The Fire Nation believes Fire to be the most powerful element. They also believe in the superiority of benders over non-benders. Non-benders are fine with it because there are no real weapons to combat bending outside of bending range. The Fire Nation has many key leaders, one of which is my father and my sister. My sister may be emotionally unstable however. There are also many key military figures in my fathers war room." Zuko said. "So we could assassinate them hypothetically." Pointed out the man from the United States.
"No, we don't want to kill anyone. Plus it would be impossible to get that close." Aang said. "You underestimate our weaponry which is understandable since you're not from here. We could merely drop explosives on their capital from a mile high. We could obliterate their city. We could have one person shoot their emperor in the head from that building over there." The leader of the United States said pointing to a building very far away.
The Gaang had to be impressed. To them this was unfathomable but Toph had not said a word and by that, they knew there were no lies. These people could actually do this. They were far more advanced than they thought.
"Even if we did that, the Fire Nation would not surrender. Someone else would take power and if they were killed someone else. The only way the Fire Nation will surrender is through a treaty that would have to be forced upon them. The Fire Nation's prime principle is honor. The Fire Nation will never dishonor themselves. The leaders care little for the death of their men. The Fire Nation won't surrender unless they are defeated unconditionally or a new ruler can be placed on the throne after my father has been defeated by the Avatar." Zuko said.
An aide came in and walked toward the man from France and handed him a letter. The leader from France opened the letter and read through it before standing up. "The Fire Nation has reached Genoa in Italy, Grenoble, Lille, Besancon, Dijon, Troyes, Rouen, Reims, Bordeaux, Brest, what remains of Paris, and Amiens. They are even marching into Southern Spain. . ."
"I am not even at war with them!" Said the leader from Spain. "Enough of us have most likely declared war on them that now they're just marching everywhere and burning everything. According to my reports, nearly 8 million French people have been killed by the Fire Nation burning our cities. They will do the same to you Franco!" The leader of France said pointing at the leader of Spain whose name was Franco.
"Portugal will assist Spain in holding them off." The leader of Portugal said.
"As will Turkey."
"And Italy."
"Regardless they are at the doors of Lyon. If it falls, France will fall and we may lose hope in holding off the Fire Nation. I have to go and address my people." The leader of France said and then left.
"I would also like to point out that some ships of the Royal Navy are on their way to intercept a Fire Nation Fleet."
"You will find some ships from America joining you." Said leader of the United States of America
"And Germany." Added the Kaiser of Germany. "Our submarines will shadow their forces. A few of our battleships and cruisers will arrive there within a day."
"Avatar," the leader of Great Britain said, turning to him. "Since we have heard that you and your friends are masters in their own fields of their own fields of bending. We wanted to know if you would assist in defending Lyon from the Fire Nation?"
"I will. If it means stopping the Fire Nation from taking all of the nation you call France, then I, I mean we will do it." Aang said. "Then we'll have a plane set up for you. It was a pleasure meeting you avatar." The leader then stood and nodded to him. Aang nodded back before he and his friends left.
Once they were outside, Aang turned to everybody, "They seemed pretty nice." He said. "Half of them hate us." Zuko said. "How do you know? They all acted polite to us. It's better than how the Earth Kingdom generals and nobility acted towards us." Katara asked.
"The only reason they bothered listening to us was because they needed information. I can see it in their eyes that they hate listening to us. I'm sure some of them also believe us to be too young and look down on us. Only a few actually respect us. The leader of Germany understands this I think. He, the leader of Britain and that of Poland looked at you with a lot of respect." Zuko said.
"How do you know?" Asked Sokka. "You forgot how I was raised and how to understand those signs." Zuko said, looking coldly toward Sokka. "Oh yeah."
On radios across France
"People of France, we are facing a decisive time in the history of our nation and the world. Now, the enemy sits at the gates of Lyon. They are the enemy at the gates. We can not let Lyon fall. If we do, we all fall. Lyon is our capital. Our largest city after Paris. We saw what those bastards did to Paris, and Bordeaux, Brest, and all the other cities and towns they have crossed. They have burned them down to the ground. They have burned the people of France. Our glorious cities, our towns, our families, our livelihoods are being burned by these people. They are the spawns of Satan! We can not let Lyon fall and be burned because if Lyon falls, France falls and they will burn all of France. We will drown in the smoke of these firebenders if we lose Lyon. Or we will swim in their blood at the gates of Lyon. I command every man, woman, and child to defend Lyon. I order every refugee to defend Lyon. We will fight house to house. Every centimeter will be paid in blood. For every one of our soldiers they take down, five more will be in their place." A man by the name of Vasily Zaitsev listened on intently.
He had lost everyone in the blowing up of Moscow. His friends and family all were lost while he tended to the family farm. Now he journeyed to Lyon to put his hunting skills to good use.
"Our nation will not be destroyed. Our people shall not be destroyed. France will not be destroyed. We are the most glorious nation to have ever lived. It took all of Europe to stop us over a century ago. We will show the world that the legacy of Napoleon lives on in us. We are better than the Fire Nation. We will fight to the last man. There is no surrender. There is no falling back. The only direction for us to go in is forward. Every person, no matter what they were, their gender, or their age will fight for the glories of the French Kingdom. Lyon will never fall!"
Aang sat in a plane listening to the radio. He couldn't help but admire these leaders. They had the gall to call for every single soul to defend their country. They all seemed very enthusiastic about defeating the Fire Nation. But he knew how hard that was. He was happy to help them.
Zuko on the other hand realized what the leader of France had said. It would be a slaughter for both sides. The Fire Nation wouldn't know how to deal with fearless soldiers. Then they would react by killing the people. He realized what would happen in the city of Lyon and he was not excited to go there.
Sokka sat in silence, lost in his own thoughts. He thought about Suki and wherever she was. He had not seen her since the attack on the Fire Nation capital. She had been taken prisoner. He was so deep in this thought that he was not even paying attention to the speech.
Off the Coast of Brest
The spotter on the Nelson looked through his binoculars, scouting the horizon, searching for a stack of smoke. He felt the cool wind on his face blowing at about 10 knots. It was the wind of the winter, he shivered thinking about it.
He scouted the other end of the horizon, still nothing. He removed the binoculars and looked to other ships. He saw the Nelson's sister ship, the Rodney, along with the HMS Hood and HMS Warspite which had joined the task force earlier that day. Then there were the four destroyers also traveling with him. There was the Blean, the Exmoor, the Holderness, and the Meynell. Next were the German battleships, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau plus the Admiral Hipper and Admiral Graf Spree.
The spotter sighed. This was extremely boring. He put the binoculars back on his eyes and saw a trail of black smoke. His eyes widened. "Smoke sighted on the horizon!" He yelled out to the bridge, pointing to the smoke stack.
The sirens of all the ships started blaring. Every sailor rushed to their battle stations and manned the guns. The planes from the Ark Royal had reported that there were about 20 Fire Nation ships, 19 cruisers and one battleship.
The radio man radioed the Ark Royal. "We need assistance, Fire Nation ships have been spotted on the horizon. I repeat we need air support."
The radio man on the Ark Royal got his message. "Prepare the planes for flight, the Fire Nation has been spotted by HMS Nelson." He called out. A man inside the radio room quickly ran to the telephone.
"The Fire Nation has been spotted! They are requesting air support." The man said into the telephone.
"How far away are the Fire Nation cruisers from the task force?" Asked the officer on the other side.
"How far away are the Fire Nation ships?" The man on the phone called out to the radio man. "35 kilometers are their best estimates." The radio man replied.
"35 kilometers!" The man on the phone said. "Our planes should reach them in time." Came the voice of the officer. "Radio the USS Wasp and tell her to launch her planes."
"Radio the USS Wasp and tell her to launch her planes!" The man on the phone said to the radio man. The radio man nodded, "Come in USS Wasp, come in."
"We hear you loud and clear Nelson." Came the voice of the American operator. "Fire Nation ships have been spotted by the British Task Force. They are requesting air support."
"Launching planes." The operator replied.
On the Ark Royal, pilots ran into their Swordfish planes. The air crew began to spin the propellers of the Swordfishes and the first Swordfish plane took off, en route to the task force.
On the USS Wasp, pilots climbed into their wildcats and Dauntless's. They checked their instruments and waited for the signal to take off. Once they had all taken off, they formed a formation and started flying as fast as they could towards the enemy position
On the Nelson, the Fire Nation cruisers were now in sight. The spotter looked through the binoculars and began to count. There were at least 30, the pilots must have counted wrong he thought.
He studied the formation, they seemed to move in a triangle formation. In the Middle there seemed to be a giant battleship. They were rapidly approaching. The Nelson, Rodney, and four destroyers were mirroring the enemy formation. Meanwhile the Hood, Warspite, and Admiral Graf Spree went to the left of the Nelson by 45°. The Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Admiral Hipper went to the right of the Nelson by 45°. They were attempting to flank the enemy.
He raised the binoculars slightly, they were about 25 kilometers away, in range. "Sir, the enemy ships are in range." He called. The radio operator on the Nelson radioed the other ships. "Who's in range?"
"The Gneisenau is."
"Scharnhorst is."
"Warspite is."
"The Rodney is."
"The Hood is."
"Sir, the Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Warspite, Rodney, and Hood are." The radio man said.
"Radio to them to pick their targets. They fire when we fire." The officer behind him said.
"Pick your targets. When we fire, everyone else fire." The radio man radioed.
The captain looked at the lead ship and decided that would be his target. He grabbed the microphone, "All guns aim for the lead ship." He said.
Below decks, sailors positioned the guns and looked through their sights. They raised the guns slightly. Then came the order to fire.
Admiral Chan looked at the enemy formation directly ahead of him from his Empire Class Battleship. He didn't expect for them to put up much of a fight. He had three times more ships than they had. It should be an easy win. They just had to go a bit further before the catapults were in range.
They he saw little areas of smoke coming from the enemy ships. Then lots of giants columns of water sprouting out of the ocean. Then the lead cruiser exploded as the bridge was annihilated. The ship quickly began to sink as men jumped overboard.
Those ships were in range and were now firing. "Prepare catapults!" He screamed and every ship prepared their catapults. It would still be useless to fire the catapults but the second they were, he would order them to fire.
Then he saw more bursts of smoke come from the ships. The cruiser to the right of his had columns of water surround it. Then, a single shell pierced directly through the ship. Everything was silent for a second, then a giant explosion. The ship quickly split in half and began to sink. Soldiers slid and tumbled into the waves of fire before being sucked down with the rest of the ship. Admiral Chan could only watch in horror.
Fire Nation Ships began to leave formation and head to the left or right while a main force stayed in the middle. He looked onto the deck of his ship and saw multiple catapults being hauled into the deck and loaded.
"Sir we're in range." The officer to his left said. "Order all ships to fire!"
The captain of the Warspite watched the fireballs blank out the sun in horror. "Hard to port!" He ordered. The officer manning the wheel quickly pulled it to the left and the captain felt himself lose balance. He stumbled and nearly fell but righted himself. He watched as fireballs landed around the ships and water shot from the sea.
He heard a deafening explosion and looked to his left to see the Hood on fire. A fireball has hit the Hood and Fire had swept across its deck. The captain watched as another fireball came and landed right above where the magazines of the Hood were.
The captain looked on and breathed a sigh of relief thinking that the fireball didn't ignite the ammunition.
KABOOM
Shockwaves traveled through the water as a tower of fire and sparks reached towards the sky from the Hood. It was as if a volcano had exploded inside the ship. It's middle section bulked and went up in the air. There was a deafening crunch and the sound of breaking metal. The captain of the Warspite watched, his eyes open in horror as the Hood broke apart as another fireball smashed into her stern.
Metal flew through the air and there was another explosion. The Hood exploded into flames.
Kaboom
There was another large explosion from the ship, not as large as the first one but still ginormous. When the smoke cleared, all that was left of the Hood was the tip of the bow that within twenty seconds was under water.
The pilots on the swordfish watched in horror as the Hood sank. "Which ship was that?" The gunner asked the pilot. "It was the Hood." The pilot said grimly and they both watched as the pride of the Royal Navy sank beneath the waves.
Admiral Chan smiled as the ship sank. The rest of the ships would go down as easily as that one. He heard a buzz from above and looked to his right. There were things with wings flying towards him and his ships. He watched as something was released from the bottom of the winged things.
He watched curiously as long objects traveled through the water and passed his ship. Then it impacted the ship to his left and a large column of water exploded from the ocean. The ship quickly began to take on water. With a start he realized that those long objects were explosives.
He looked up and saw a winged thing flying towards his ship. Suddenly men were falling on the ground as metal objects pierced them and the ship. The admiral was just able to duck below the windows as more metal objects flew through the window.
"I want all firebenders aiming for those things!" He said pointing to the winged objects. The signal was sent to all the Fire Nation ships and columns of fire were shot from the decks of the ships. One column of flames hit a lone winged object and the fire quickly spread around the back of it before the winged object fell into the water.
The two forces were now 15 kilometers away from each other. The Fire Nation had lost 4 ships while the joint German and British task force had lost a single ship, the Hood. The Warspite had slowed down to pick up the few survivors.
Meanwhile on the Exmoor, The captain turned the speed up to full ahead. He decided that a fireball never hits the same place twice and followed each of the columns of water created by the fireballs. It's like how lightning never strikes twice the captain thought.
The Exmoor was soon within 5 kilometers of the ships. "Launch port torpedo's!" The captain called out. The captain heard the sound of torpedoes being fired and watched as they traveled through the ocean, speeding toward the enemy ships.
"Fire guns!" The captain said. The guns rotated, changed their altitude, and fired. The shells smashed into one unsuspecting fire nation ship doing little damage. That was until a torpedo came and hit the bow of the ship, blowing it off.
Another two torpedoes smashed into another ship in the midship. The final torpedo missed all the ships. "Hard to port!" The captain called out, hoping to launch the starboard torpedoes. That's when a fireball flew right above the stern, destroying everything that stood up higher than 10 meters. Yet, the captain was not deterred.
The starboard torpedoes were ready to fire. "Fire the starboard torpedoes." He yelled. He heard the sound again and watched as the torpedoes flew through the water. He looked back to see the other destroyers doing similar actions in attempts to approach the enemy ships.
"Hard to starboard! Make a run for the task force again!" He called out. The ship began to steam away from the Fire Nation ships but the Fire Nation wouldn't let them get away with destroying so many ships and no damage.
Five fireballs flew towards the Exmoor, the captain watched as they landed around his boat. He breathed a sigh of relief, thankful none had hit his boat. That's when another fireball came and smashed into the Exmoor's midship.
The captain only watched in horror as explosions rattled the ship. Men jumped overboard into the sea. Then the Exmoor began to tip to the right. He looked up just in time to see a fireball streaking towards the bridge. This is the end he thought, at least he would die honorably. He closed his eyes, a second later the bridge was destroyed.
The spotter on the Nelson watched as the Exmoor capsized to her port side. There was an explosion and another volley of shots were fired from the battleships of joint British and German task force.
Shells landed around the enemy task force and he could see smoke billowing from many ships as they burned. He watched as the Fire Nation ships fired another volley of fireballs, many aimed at the Nelson and Rodney.
The spotter watched as fireballs landed around the Nelson, but the Rodney wasn't so lucky. A fireball had landed just off her port side and had created a hole. Another fireball had landed on the bow, which was now on fire.
The spotter watched as firemen ran onto the deck and started hosing it off with water. He thought that there was no chance they could fight off this large of a force. That's when he heard a buzz and looked up. Hundreds of American Dauntless's and Wildcats flew through the air.
"Group A will go for the ships flanking on our left. Group B will go for the ships flanking on our right." The lead plane's commander said.
William O'Connor held the joystick as tight as he could. He had been assigned to group A and was pulling away from group B. He moved the joystick to the left as the plane rolled. "Everyone pick your targets." Came the voice of the commander.
William looked down and saw so many ships. He decided on one that was near the middle of the Fire Nation column flanking. He waited until he was nearly above the Fire Nation cruiser before he pushed the throttle forward. The plane dove and William was pushed against his seat.
The winged thing was getting very close to his Fire Nation cruiser the captain of the cruiser of thought. "All firebenders, aim for that thing!" He said pointing to the thing diving at his cruiser. Firebenders began shooting out fire into the air, trying to hit the plane.
William waited until the last moment before he pulled the bomb trigger. The captain of the cruiser watched as something fell from the plane and pierced his deck. His eyes widened as a giant explosion occurred blowing him back.
"It's a hit!" Yelled William's back gunner, Kieran Frudalson. William smiled as he evaded all the shots of fire being shot at him. He pulled away and looked back, the Fire Nation cruiser which he had hit was low in the water. He looked throughout the line and saw many cruisers in the same position. William watched as a volley came from the two German battleships and Admiral Hipper land across the line of Fire Nation ships, blowing holes in many of them. Many of the ships then began to retreat pulling away and heading towards somewhere away from the planes and ships.
Still the center area held and continued to fire volleys of fireballs, aimed for the Rodney. The spotter watched as the fireballs came and smashed into the Rodney. The Rodney's guns blew up and her bow began to sink into the water but she miraculously stayed afloat. The spotter watched as all the ships then fired a final volley at the center area of ships.
Admiral Chan watched as another volley came and smashed into his ships. "Order all ships to retreat!" He yelled. All of his ships began to turn as he looked back and saw the remaining 10 ships. The Fire Nation had lost a total of 11 ships, some would need to be scuttled or left behind as well so about 16 Fire Nation ships would have been lost in the battle. Meanwhile, the enemy task force had lost two ships and another crippled plus a few flying things. It was a complete defeat of the Fire Nation by the people of this world. The Phoenix King would not be happy.
Lyon
Preparations have been being made for a month to defend Lyon. Tanks and soldiers had been able to hold off the Fire Nation advance but couldn't for long. The Fire Nation had focused its main forces in Spain and Northern France where they pushed into Belgium and Germany. The only areas of France under French control was Lyon and Chamberry.
The Fire Nation had been pushed back to Valence and Grenoble by Italian, Turkish, Russian, and American troops. In Spain, the Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish troops were being pushed back slowly. Portugal and Spain did not have the manpower to support a large scale defense while it took awhile for Turkish troops to reach Spain. Finally, in Northern France, the Fire Nation had nearly taken it all and were now in Mannheim and Stuttgart in Germany and had taken nearly all of Belgium.
Lyon, meanwhile, was defended by every single soldier that could be mustered by the French. A British expeditionary force and an American one were also there along with a few Russian and German forces.
The Gaang had been there for about 2 weeks. They saw the weapons that these people used. They watched their training, the planes that flew overhead, and the tanks that rolled on the ground. Aang had learned about guns and machine guns and rifles. There were so many different ones.
Aang had watched as children and old people picked up guns and were taught how to use them. He had objected to this of course but he was told that they needed every soldier they could get. It would take everything the French had to defeat the Fire Nation. Aang begrudgingly accepted this.
Toph had created earthenworks for defense of the city. Inside of these earthenworks were either tanks or anti-tank guns. Soldiers were in every building, carrying machine guns and panzerfausts, given to them by the Germans.
Sokka looked around and couldn't believe his eyes, so many non-benders, all putting up a fight against benders. He wanted to learn how to fight. That's when he saw a flyer. He picked it up and realized it was in French. "Oh Great" Sokka looked around."Hey, you," he said running to a French soldier. "Could you read this to me in English please?"
The soldier looked at Sokka for a second before he took the flyer and looked at it. "It says that sniper training is over there." The French soldier said pointing down the street, frowning after reading the term sniper.
"Ok thanks" Sokka said before running down the street. He went where the man had directed him. He came across any soldiers being given guns with scopes on them. He quickly got in line and was given a gun with a scope on it. All the soldiers got in line and Sokka followed, in front of them stood a German officer.
"Sniping is an art." He began. "It is an art of stealth, of silent execution. To be a sniper is to use your surroundings to your advantage. To get the shot on your target and get away unseen. I will teach you this art."
They then moved onto drills and Sokka learned how to shoot. He learned how to aim down his guns' sights, how to use a scope, how to shoot from really far away. He learned how to use his surroundings to his advantage, how to hide in the buildings of Lyon.
The course was in total a day long. In the end, he felt like he was a master. He loved his gun as much as he loved his meteorite sword he got from Master Piandao.
When he reached the Gaang again, Sokka was bubbling with excitement and pride for learning the art. "Guess what I just learned." Sokka said. "What did you learn about Sokka?" Aang asked.
"I learned how to use this baby." Sokka said, holding his gun proudly. Katara and Toph laughed, "What are you going to do with that, whack it over someone's head? It's better to just use your meteorite sword Sokka." Katara pointed out.
"Have you seen what these people could do. They can fight benders from really far. Now I can do it too!" Sokka proudly said. "If you're so confident, why don't you show us?" Toph asked. "Here, I'm going to go to that building over there," Sokka pointed to a building 100 meter from them. "And I'm going to go up into there and I'll shoot this can," Sokka picked up a can from the floor. "From up there. Stand clear in case I miss." Sokka finished.
Sokka then ran over to the building and quickly ran up the stairs. He looked out the window and blanched. This was much further than he thought. He took a deep breath then aimed down his scope. He could see the can clearly. He raised the gun slightly to make up for the bullet drop. Then he took the shot.
There was a bang and the can went flying. Toph, Katara, Aang, and Zuko looked on with their mouths wide open. Then they heard Sokka's voice from really far away exclaim, "See I can do it!"