5: "The First of Many, an Attack with Many Flaws; Part 1"

Any time now, she thought to herself.

They had finished up the meeting finally agreeing on a plan. They would attack in the dead of night; hoping to catch people off-guard. Youta would send up a signal to alert everyone of the attack. And so Suzu was stuck waiting by the window for it. She had figured it would happen at any moment now, about two hours earlier. They seemed to be dawdling. However Suzu didn't know how big their supposed army was and how long it could take to coordinate such an attack.

And if to answer her frustration, there it was; a single green flare going straight up high into the sky. A small crack from the explosion brought Suzu back to her senses and she jumped up. Out of nowhere, Suzu gained energy she didn't know she had. She was ready and so were they, apparently.

"Suzu, what was that?" asked a voice.

Suzu flipped around to see her younger sister, Avaron, in the doorway, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

"Why are you dressed in your normal clothing?" Avaron asked.

"Avaron, I'm going to need you to go back to bed," Suzu answered as she rushed around her room, grabbing stuff off of shelves and out of drawers.

"What are you doing?" Avaron continued to ask, ignoring Suzu's commands.

Suddenly a loud crash echoed out in the distance. Suzu glanced out her window to see a building she recognized as one of the barracks completely collapsing into the ground. It looked as if the earth was eating them up, one by one.

I guess they have enough benders, Suzu thought.

"Suzu?" Avaron asked.

"Avaron, I need you to go back to your room now and stay there!" Suzu ordered, looking her sister straight in her eyes. "Now!"

Without allowing the ten-year old to ask any more questions, Suzu all but carried her back to her room. Once the child was back in her room, Suzu closed the door and turned to leave. And without another word, Suzu left.

The barracks were collapsing one after another. No one inside seemed to have enough time to react as the ground beneath them gave out, sending everyone inside each building down into the ground. A few managed to crawl from the rubble, but the numbers were slim. Youta watched on from a nearby street in the shadows. He was saddened that they needed to kill, but what were a few lives compared to the freedom of many. Besides they were soldiers, people who signed their lives away already. Compared to the many already sacrificed from other nations who weren't soldiers but ordinary people, the cost seemed small. Still Youta held his breath as he watched the buildings sink.

Youta let out a deep sigh as he pulled out something that looked like a miniature cannon. He stuffed some wadding and powder inside and aimed it upward. After lighting off the wick, he turned his head away and the flare was sent hurling into the sky. A green stream of light followed after it, accompanied by a soft, but echoing crack.

"I hope Suzu saw that," he mumbled to himself. "It looks like this is happening."

"Over there!"

A soldier who had crawled out of one of the barracks was shouting at Youta, who had just given away his position in the shadows with the flare. The soldier was with some other soldiers who had escaped and they looked incredibly angry.

"It's one of the rebels!" the soldier shouted.

"Shoot," Youta cursed under his breath.

He didn't need to be caught, especially now. Besides, he knew they wouldn't just arrest him. After what happened to them, if they figured him to be a rebel, it was his life on the line. Youta darted down the street, hugging the shadows as he took off. The soldiers proceeded to chase after him. Youta was fast, but it seemed so were the soldiers. He couldn't shake them.

"Shoot, shoot, shoot," Youta continued to mutter as he panted.

"Stop now!" one of the soldiers ordered.

One of the soldiers stopped and slid his foot forward quickly. As he did so, he drew his hands together and, with much force, pushed forward. A flame came from his hands and was aimed towards the fleeing Youta. Youta looked back just in time to see the incoming flame and dodge it by dropping down. However by dropping down, Youta allowed the distance between him and the other soldiers to dwindle.

"Youta?" one of the soldiers recognized him.

The face of the soldier was familiar to Youta as well. It was Keiichi, Suzu's older brother. They had been good friends, but were recently spending time apart. Ever since Keiichi joined the army when he was seventeen, Youta couldn't look at him without disgust – though Youta didn't mean to. Suzu had mentioned Keiichi would be staying home, so seeing his once friend in front of him, chasing him, caused Youta to be both confused and saddened.

"What do you think you're doing?" Keiichi questioned.

"Stop asking questions! He is a rebel! He signaled others!" another soldier snapped.

Youta took a deep breath and braced himself.

"He's right, I am a rebel," Youta said.

Keiichi did not seem surprised; after all he did just see his once-friend send a flare up while watching the barracks collapse. But Keiichi still seemed a bit saddened at the answer.

"He admitted to being a traitor and a rebel. Capture him!" the soldier shouted.

All the soldiers posed themselves, ready to attack. Keiichi, though apprehensive, also did so. Youta tensed up, but seemed relatively calm.

"You can either come peacefully or put up a fight and get seriously hurt," the soldier said.

"I have a feeling you'll hurt me even if I come peacefully," Youta pointed out.

"Well, we don't appreciate traitors to the Nation," he said.

"So how about I pick neither," Youta said, stomping his foot on the ground repeatedly.

"Attack!" the soldier ordered.

The soldiers simultaneously swung their arms forward in a windmill fashion as they lunged towards Youta. Flame wheels appeared on either side of them. Just as quickly as they appeared, they were launched at him. Youta raised his arms as the flames zoomed towards him.

Cliffhanger! Sorry, but I'm going to have to stop here. I most likely will be focusing on Youta and a few other characters, away from Suzu, the next few updates during the attack as I try to show all the sides. Anyway, I hope this chapter was satisfactory. Be sure to drop a review and tell me what you thought.

I found the bending a bit harder to describe. I tried watching some videos on Youtube of the martial art style. Which quick fact, firebending is based on Northern Shaolin. It is a bit hard to describe sharp, quick movements of the body, especially when it comes to firebending, which is filled with such motions. Please let me know if the descriptions are too vague or anything and I will try to do better. Just please be nice.

Thank-you and I hope you have a nice day. See you next time.