Chapter 4: True Power
Accelerator and Ozai stared into one another's eyes, each daring the other to make a move. Accelerator's crimson irises flashed red with excitement as he focused on Ozai's face; all of his patience was gone and he knew that there was no going back from this point. The Fire Lord lifted his nose to the esper, and his calm demeanor seemed to had left him completely.
"What…did you just do?" the man demanded, uncertainty evident in his voice.
Accelerator growled at the other's question, "don't try to change the subject. Get down here and show me this 'true power' you've been talking about."
Ozai's eyebrow twitched in irritation as he stood up and began to slowly walk toward the skinny teen. Upon reaching the center of the square and looking evenly at Accelerator, he seemed to study the esper, looking up and down his thin figure.
"What you just did," the Fire Lord continued, giving a straight face, "that wasn't fire bending as my daughter described; your attack was more akin to an earthbender's abilities. Your skills…should not exist in this world. What are you?"
Accelerator rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Blah, blah, blah. Let's fight already!" he bellowed as he crouched down in an attack position.
"…very well," Ozai said with closed eyes. He gently grabbed his royal plates that were attached to a flowing red cape and silently removed them from his body; the armor and cloth both fell to the ground, releasing the Fire Lord from their restricting positions as he took a deep breath.
Mai and Ty Lee stared wide-eyed at the event that unfolded in front of them; to be honest, they were still recovering from the power that Accelerator had displayed on the other fighters – it was over in an instant. The two girls looked at Azula, wondering what her reaction was to the situation in front of them.
"Azula," Ty Lee whispered, cupping her hand to the side of her mouth, "shouldn't we, like, try to stop this?"
"No," Azula simply responded, "if we interfere now, it would call my father's power into question. Besides, even though Accelerator may be strong, he is still no match for a firebending master."
Ty Lee and Mai gave each other unsure glances as they turned their attention back to the battle at hand.
"Well, are you going to attack?" Ozai said, practically daring the esper to take a shot.
"You first," Accelerator said with a massive grin.
There was momentary silence as the two fighters remained still, ignoring the felling of the wind and the sound of the rustling trees. Then, almost faster than the eye could see, Ozai outstretched his arm and delivered an humongous beam of fire that engulfed the teenage esper and shot off into the sky. The attack lasted for a few seconds before Ozai finally cut it off an jumped back, knowing that it wouldn't do that much damage to the white-haired warrior. Before the smoke fully settled from his last attack, Fire Lord Ozai created a fiery sphere in between his two palms. Once the attack was fully charged, he waited for Accelerator's immediate retaliation, hoping that he would be able to catch the boy off guard.
"What are you waiting for?" asked a voice directly behind the firebender.
"What?!" Ozai said aloud as he quickly rotated his body around to face a grinning Accelerator. How in the world did he get behind him? No human was that fast, no matter what bending technique they used.
"How did you-" his words were quickly cut off as Accelerator lunged at him with such speed that it almost caught the Fire Lord off guard. Reacting as fast as he could, Ozai threw his fire orb to the ground, hoping that it would provide him with cover; the red sphere hit the ground, causing dirt to rise up and form a veil between the two fighters. Now that Accelerator was partially blinded, Ozai used a perpetual stream of fire from the bottom of his feet to launch him into the air. Looking back down after getting high enough to see the entire battleground, the dark-haired firebender practically gasped in surprise as he saw Accelerator following him into the air. Four miniature tornado currents were stationed on the esper's back, propelling him upward, as he neared the Fire Lord's position. There was no time to think – Ozai quickly raised his arms in front of him, hoping to block most of the upcoming attack; but he was not prepared for such a powerful blow. Once Accelerator was close enough, he swung his fist down upon the firebender's defense, slamming him all the way back down to the ground bellow.
Ozai grunted, feeling an intense pain as he pulled himself up from the dirt; he watched as Accelerator landed back down on the ground a few feet away from him.
"Heh, What's the matter?" Accelerator practically laughed out loud, "where's all that 'true power' you were talking about?"
Ozai said nothing in response as he desperately used his knee to fully stand up; at this point, his face was stained with dust and sweat as he did his best to not pass out from the sheer amount of pain he was experiencing.
"You look a little tired, Fire Lord," Accelerator mocked, "maybe you should sit down, or better yet - get knocked down!"
With that, Accelerator lunged once again at the firebender, but the other fighter didn't seem to show any signs of moving. As he got closer, the Fire Lord lifted his head and yelled out, "I yield!"
Almost as if time had stopped, Accelerator froze in place, a few inches from Ozai's dirt-stained face.
"huh? What did you say?" the esper questioned, although all the previous humor and levity had left his voice.
"I yield, boy," Ozai said with a tired face, "victory is yours."
The man then proceeded to slowly walk past Accelerator and defeatedly picked up his armor and cape off of the ground. The fight was over – Accelerator had won; but the victory seemed…shallow.
The white-haired esper had an unsatisfied look on his face as he watched the firebender return to his seat in silence.
"Tch. Whatever," he said to himself, either ignoring or not noticing the sound of approaching steps.
"Fire Lord Ozai! Fire Lord Ozai!" yelled a strained voice as a young man quickly ran to the royal firebender.
The man, maybe in his mid-20s, got on his knees in front of Ozai and gave the Fire Lord a low bow.
"My Lord, I bring important news!" the man said, looking up at Ozai after raising his head.
"Speak," the other simply said, sounding as though he had not recently been bested in a battle mere moments ago.
"My Lord, it's about the avatar – he has been found!" the man stated, sounding a bit too excited.
"Where?" Ozai said without moving.
"We have received many anonymous tips stating that he is currently headed to Ba Sing Se," the man replied.
"Ba Sing Se?" Accelerator mumbled to himself.
"It's the Capital of the Earth Kingdom; a massive city that is surrounded by a practically impenetrable wall." Azula informed as she walked up to the confused esper.
"I-Indeed," the young man agreed, "it's also been discovered that the avatar is no longer in possession of his sky bison. We have yet to find why this is the case, but it is estimated that he will reach the capital's outer wall within two days."
"A sky bison?" Accelerator repeated, getting sick and tired of being confused.
"No matter," Ozai said, addressing no one in particular, "if the avatar is without his bison, it provides us with an opportunity to finally capture him; without any way to escape, we will bring him to his knees."
"Wait a minute. What if he gets to the wall first? You said yourself that it's 'impenetrable', so how the fuck do you expect to get through?"
Azula's grin quickly turned to a full-fledged smile, "Don't worry. We have a way of getting inside," she said.
"Azula," Ozai said, garnering the attention of both her and the esper, "take Accelerator with you. As per your request, he is now a member of the Fire Nation's ranks – do not fail me."
"Yes, father," Azula said with a bow, "Accelerator, Mai, Ty Lee – come! We have work to do."
She quickly whirled around and headed back into the palace, followed by the other two girls from before. As Accelerator rolled his eyes and began to begrudgingly follow the group, he was slowed down by the Fire Lord's last words.
"Oh, and Accelerator – I expect a rematch," he said with narrowed eyes.
A small grin grew on the teen's face as he listened to the man's statement.
"heh, I'll be waiting for it," Accelerator said before he rejoined the group at the opened door and disappeared into the building.
Walking through the hallway with his hands in his pockets, Accelerator noticed that the pink uniformed girl kept glancing back at him with a smile on her face. He wasn't all that amused, especially considering that every time she looked at him, she would giggle and whisper something to the other girl beside her. He was starting to get pissed off….again.
Finally, the girl turned around once more and looked directly at him.
"Hey – Accelerator was it? – you're strong! I've never seen anybody challenge the Fire Lord like that! You even won!"
"He won by default," the other girl said dryly without looking back.
"But, Mai, he held his own against the Fire Lord – the freaking FIRE LORD! Who else do you know can do that?"
The girl, Mai, said nothing and merely continued to walk forward.
"he he he, sorry about her," the first girl said awkwardly, "she's actually pretty nice when you get to know her."
She then politely held out her hand with a smile, "My name's Ty Lee. And that's Mei," she said, gesturing to the girl beside her.
Accelerator looked down at the opened hand, as if he had never seen what a handshake was before, and just stared back at the girl.
"O-oh! You know what, it's fine. I didn't really mean to put you on the spot or anything. You don't have to shake my hand if you don't want to."
It was sort of off putting to see someone so happy to get rejected; he would have been a bit creped out, if they hadn't all stopped in front of yet another large door. Azula gave the same knock, and the door quickly swung open.
The four of them walked into an incredibly large room; it had to have at least been the size of a football field. The impressive height and length of it all almost made Accelerator speechless. In the middle of the massive room was large machine that sat motionlessly on the ground; large, grey metal plates made up the outer surface of the vehicle, and big car-sized wheels supported it from beneath. At the forefront of the machine was an incredibly big drill that converged to an impressively sharp point with spiraling indents surrounding it. There was no doubt about it – it was a gigantic drill.
"What the hell is this?" Accelerator asked as he checked out the massive object.
"This," Azula said as she gestured to the machine in front of her, "is our way into Ba Sing Se."
End of chapter 4
A/N: Hey, guys! I know that I didn't say much on the last chapter, but I felt that this one was slightly more interesting. I'm sure most people were expecting Fire Lord Ozai to get wrecked (and to a certain extent he did), but I wanted to keep him in the story because I have some really interesting roles that I want him to play. Also, I'm so happy that I was finally able to officially introduce Mei and Ty Lee to Accelerator, although they technically 'met' in the last chapter. Anyway, if you liked this chapter, please leave a comment; I'm putting this chapter up on the same day as the previous one, so please show me some love. Bye!