Chapter Twenty-Seven:
I walked across the cold plains with a group of fellow escapees. One of them pointed into the distance. "Guys, it's coming!" he said.
We heard a faint engine sounds, and saw a skid vehicle driving towards us. It slid to a stop and the door opened up. "Get in!" a man called out.
We all piled in the skid. It was cramped, but we were out of the cold finally. "Boy I am so glad to see you Arata." said one of the men. "It's good to have the Avatar on our side, and yours friends and going to be so glad to have you back.
Upon reaching the base I was soon reunited with my friends. A massive pair of arms grabbed me picked me up. "Oh we missed you so much!" Tetsu bellowed!
Kaze then eagerly leaped onto me and squeezed. "We were so worried about you!" she squealed.
"Don't you get lost like that again." Sela commented.
"It's good to have you back." Genji said as he and Sela awkwardly joined the pile.
I let them hold onto me for a while, then pushed my hands out. They stepped a bit back. "Thank you guys, I'm so glad to see you."
A man approached me. "I'm Kinto" he said. "Nice to meet you Avatar Arata."
"This is the leader of the local resistance." Tetsu explained.
"I've been leading them against my sister Visola." he said.
"You're her brother?!" I exclaimed.
"Yeah, Visola is one scary character." he said. "I can't imagine what you've been through with her. I saw my mother have to endure it for so long."
"And Arashi is their father" Kaze added.
"Jeesh, everyone is related." I replied.
"I think we are all on the same page now." said Kinto. "We need to get moving. My sister is not going to take your escape lying down."
"What should we do?" I asked.
"She will search the nearby towns." Kinto said. "And she won't do it nicely."
"We need to get them first." Kaze exclaimed.
"Just what I was thinking." Kinto replied.
We drove in a couple of skids towards the nearest town. Quickly we saw the chaos. Citizens were panicking in the streets. Soldiers and guards were kicking down doors and ransacking the homes.
Members of Kinto's resistance engaged the soldiers. The went back and forth, firing watershots and ice crystals throughout the streets. I charged into the fray on a wave of earth and snow, with Kinto and Tetsu at my sides. We jumped up and the wave continued to crawl forward, bowling over a group of soldiers.
Shots came at us from all sides. We raised up a wall around us. It shock as the shots pelted at it. Soon it came crumbling down and the soldiers all charged at us. Kinto waved his arms and the soldiers tripped into a heap. We then lifted up the snow, burying the soldiers into it.
I ran into a house with an open door. I heard yelling, and ran into the room where it was coming from. A soldier was waving a water whip. "Where is the Avatar?!" he demanded.
A scared man pleaded with him. "I have never seen the Avatar. I don't know who he is."
The soldier lashed the man. "Where is he?!" he shouted.
"Right here!" I yelled.
The soldier turned around right and I hurled a fireball. He smacked it away, but I boiled the water in his whip and sent the steam at him. He collapsed, trying to cool the scalding steam.
I ran out the back door was confronted by more soldiers in the alley. I dodged and blocked there shots, and blasted back with fire and water. Kaze leapt down from the roof and hit the soldiers with a powerful windblast. My shots slammed into them, and the retrated out of the alley.
I charged out to the street to pursue the wounded soldiers. There I found Genji and Sela brawling with some more soldiers. Genji hurled a gas canister at a group of soldiers, and they froze it into ice. I thawed the ice out and Kaze forced it out the gas.
Sela punched out a soldier, and threw a bola at another. The bola wrapped around his arms and I knocked him down with a waterblast.
We came across a house surrounded by soldiers battling resistance members. The soldiers tried to batter at the house's barricaded windows and doors. I took a deep breath and breathed out a sheet of flame.
The soldier turned around and tried to shield themselves. They scattered as there water shields evaporated. A few soldiers flanked me, but Kaze drove them off with windblasts. As I got closer to the barricade I heard shouts from inside. Kaze and I went around the perimeter, trying to avoid the crossfire in the meantime.
One of the windows was broken open, and had pieces of wood and glass outside and inside. We crawled through and heard the yelling much clearer. We ran through the rooms, following the voices, till we found them.
A group of soldiers surrounded a huddled mass of citizens. One of the soldiers noticed me and grabbed a boy. He wrapped a snake of water around his neck. Kaze, Genji, Sela, a few resistance members and I aimed our weapons and bending at him.
The soldier glared at us. "Surrender yourself Avatar." he snarled.
"You know I won't let you harm the boy." I replied.
The soldier gave the boy's neck a brief squeeze. "I'm warning you." I growled. "Let him go or..."
"Or what." he taunted. "Nothing you do can scare me. If I don't get you back, I don't want to know what Visola will do to me."
"We are not giving up our friend." declared Sela.
The soldier squeezed the boy's neck a couple more times. I lifted up my hands. "Alright I'll go."
I walked carefully towards the soldiers. The hostage taker relaxed his grip on the boy, but still held on to him. "Put down your weapons." he demanded of my allies.
They dropped out of there stances and put there weapons on the floor. A few of the soldiers approached me with platinum cuffs in there hands. The hostage taker dropped the boy onto the floor.
Right then Sela kicked a bola across the floor. It opened up and wrapped around his ankles. Sela jumped past him poked him up and down his back. For a brief second he let out a scream. It was quickly cut off, but his face still had the same pained and shocked expression. He dropped limply to the floor.
Genji kicked over a gas canister which opened up among the soldiers and hostages. The hostages slumped over and the soldiers tried to gag themselves. Kaze and I pushed the gas away from us and into the mouths and noses of the soldiers. They soon collapsed onto the ground.
Nao approached Visola. "Do you have the Avatar?!" she demanded.
"Not yet, but the troops have encountered heavy resistance in one of the villages." he replied. "They believe the Avatar is among them."
Visola grinned. "Now I have you now." she said. "Let's join the battle personally."