Chap. 24

The Battle of NYC: Part 2

The Hammerstein Ballroom is on of the oldest theatres in New York. Since 1906, it has provided the city with music, sports, and several other events. Inside the walls of the building, events have taken place that were awe-inspiring to those who witnessed them. Some of those events have come from the legendary wrestling promotion ECW, including the long-awaited crowning of Rob Van Dam as the ECW champion. Others have come from various musical groups. But as of this day, the most memorable event concerning the Hammerstein Ballroom will not be an event that took place inside it's walls, but one that occurred outside them…

"This is your last warning! Put your weapons down or we will be forced to open fire!" the Chief of the NYPD yelled through his megaphone at the group that stood in front of the wreckage. The police had received reports of people causing destruction at the Ballroom an hour ago. At first, they had believed the reports of incendiary devices to be of the normal variety, and they had brought the properly equipped 'fire-squad.' But when they had arrived, all they'd seen was a trio of teenage girls, along with a group of men, all dressed in strange red outfits. The Chief's first reaction had been caution mixed with puzzlement; if these people had caused all the damage that now littered the streets, where were their weapons? But when he'd begun the standard police warnings, the girl dressed in dark red armor had raised her hand up and suddenly flame had shot forth from her hand, shot over the cops' heads, and slammed into the nearby building, causing rubble to fall and crush two police cruisers. From there, the officers had drawn their weapons, but the Chief followed procedure and gave a final warning to the group.

But the reaction was not what he'd hoped. The armored girl, seemingly ignorant of the mass of firearms pointed at her, simply walked up and asked the Chief, "Do you rule this city?"

"Excuse me?" the Chief asked in surprise.

"Are you the ruler of this city or not? I don't have time for lengthy explanations." The girl snapped. "I have a lot of things to do here. Now who rules here?"

"Put down your weapons and we'll talk." The Chief replied.

"Talk, and I'll let you live." Was his answer, as the girl brought her hands up again. This time, the fire shot out towards one of the crushed cruisers. Everyone quickly ran out of the way, as the gas in the cruiser caught fire and exploded. As flaming wreckage fall from the sky, the girl lowered her arms and looked at the police with a grim smile of pleasure.

The Chief gulped; despite all he'd dealt with in his time as a cop, something about this different. This girl, who was barely older then the Chief's own daughter, was possessed of a viciousness and self-assurance that was almost scary to behold. Even outnumbered, outgunned, and playing some strange game, she was in control of the situation. Still, the Chief knew he had a job to do, and so he raised the megaphone again. "Who are you? Why do you want to speak with our ruler?" he asked, trying to play along with the girl's game.

"I am Azula, Princess of the Fire Nation." The girl responded. "I want your ruler to demand the immediate surrender of this city. You will bring him here, Captain, or your city will be a burning wasteland."

Azula smiled, as she watched the Chief fidget under her demands. Everything was going exactly as she'd planned the previous night. Come into the city, find an important location, and start causing destruction. It was so simple, and yet so very effective. After all, what did she have to worry about? Without bending, these fools had no real weapons against her. With Mai, Ty Lee, and her soldiers behind her, Azula would take this city from its rulers, and begin to carve herself out an empire for herself.

"I'm waiting, Captain." She snapped, as the Chief brought the megaphone up again.

"We can't bring you our ruler. He's out of town this week. What else do you want?" The Chief replied.

Azula's face darkened at that, as Mai whispered to Ty Lee, "Well, he's about to fry."

"I gave you my demands. You WILL obey them! And if you can't, then I will find him myself." Azula snarled, as the air around her began to crackle. The Chief felt the hairs on his body began to stand, but by then it was too late. Azula pushed out her hands and sent forth the lightning towards the Chief. But as the old cop brought up his arms to shield himself, the pavement in front of him suddenly cracked and stretched up, forming itself into a wall that absorbed the shock of the lightning. Realizing he was not dead, the Chief opened his eyes, only to gape in amazement at the shield before him. "It's just one of those days, isn't it?" he said aloud, as he looked up.

But Azula took one look at the pavement, and instantly knew what it meant.

"Earthbending." She whispered to herself. "They're here." She said aloud, turning to face her troops.

"They are? Oh, do you think that the Water-Tribe boy is with them?" Ty Lee asked happily.

"But where are they?" The Captain asked, as he and the other soldiers readied themselves for battle.

"Close by. Be ready." Azula said, as she began to move into a defensive stance. But before she could finish, she felt the air around her begin to crackle again, and she knew that the Thunderer was nearby. There was a crack of thunder, and then a bolt of lighting shot from the sky. But Azula was fast, and managed to create a fire-shield that absorbed much of the impact. Still, she was flung down hard, skidding across the street. Before she could stop herself, Azula felt something step into her path and block her movement. But before she could sit up, Azula felt two sharp blades pushed by her neck, just enough so that any sudden movement would effectively slice her neck. She then heard a voice say, "Hello sister." And saw her brother's scared face come into view.

"Azula!" Ty Lee called out, as she rushed to help her friend. But before she got within a foot of Azula, a huge stream of water suddenly shot out of the sky and wrapped itself around the acrobat and pulled her back. Mai and the soldier moved to help, but then there was a blinding light, and they halted in their tracks, unable to see. At that moment, the rest of the group landed from the skies. Aire and Aang quickly brought the winds to bear and thrust their enemies backward into the wall of the Ballroom, while Katara used her waterstream to hold Ty Lee in place while Hierro pulled himself up on his 'chain-webs' and used his lower arms to shackle the young acrobat as he flipped to the ground.

"Well, that wasn't so bad." Iroh said, as he stepped off of Trueno's back, near the spot where his nephew held Azula in place.

"Speak for yourself." Toph said, as she literally bent down and kissed the ground.

But before anyone could begin to celebrate victory, a young cop suddenly pointed his gun towards the group. "All right! Everybody on the ground, now!"

"It's all right officer." Oscuridad said, holding his armored hands up as he approached the cop. "We're the good guys!"

"That's for me to decide!" the officer yelled back, as he kept his gun on the bat. But before he could fire, the Chief came forward and pushed the man's gun down.

"Dammit Johnson, must you always have an itchy trigger finger?" the Chief snapped. Turning back to the other officers, the Chief yelled, "Keep your guns on the ones that were with the girl, make sure they don't get away!"

Turning back to Oscuirdad, he asked, "So who are you guys supposed to be, the Justice League of Knights, Kids, and an Old Guy?"

"That's actually pretty close." Oscuridad replied. "But don't worry Chief, we aren't here to cause problems. We just want to take the Terrible Trio and their friends back where we all belong."

"And that would be?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." The bat replied, as he turned towards Azula. But the Chef grabbed him and spun him back around.

"Look pal, these punks have been causing major destruction in my city. Now, I want to know what the hell is going on here."

Oscuridad sighed and began to speak, but then Tierra said, "Jim, believe me, this is one of those cases."

The Chief spun around at that voice and seeing Tierra, gasped, "Eddie?"

"Chirron, man, how many exorcisms did you do?" Toph asked in amazement.

"Look Jim, let's talk about this one, ok?" the dog said, as he put his arm around the Chief and led him away. With that out of the way, Oscuridad moved over to where Zuko was holding Azula.

"So Princess, how goes everything?" the bat asked, as he leaned down.

"Why don't you tell Zuko to let me go and I'll show you?" Azula snapped.

"I don't think so. Now listen up. We have two options here. See, we're going home soon. So you and your friends can either give up and wait with us for that to happen, or we can beat the hell out of you and your friends some more and wait then. What do you say?"

"Well, you certainly make an interesting proposal." The Fire Princess sneered. "But I think I have a better idea." With that, Azula suddenly flipped her legs back, knocking them into Zuko's head. Stunned, Zuko released his grip on his swords, allowing Azula to move out of their range. Before Oscuridad could stop her, Azula sent out a fireburst that forced Katara to move, which made her to relinquish her concentration over the water holding Ty Lee. The acrobat fell to the ground, just as Mai and the soldiers got back to their feet.

"See, isn't this a better choice?" Azula asked smugly, as she and her group began to prepare themselves for battle.

"Oh crap!" the Chief yelled, as he ducked behind what was left of his cruiser.

"Jesus Christ, somebody call for back-up!" he yelled over to a nearby officer, as the sounds of battle began to fill the air.

"Any ideas who sir?" the young cop asked.

"The Army probably wouldn't be a bad start!" the Chief responded.

"Sir, we should open fire!" Lieutenant Johnson yelled over from the side.

"Johnson, this one is out of our hands! Eddie says they can deal with it, so I'm inclined to let them try!" the Chief responded as he went back down under the cruiser. But Johnson didn't. Bending down by the rubble, the young cop pulled his gun and began to search for a target….

"Come now brother, you can do better then this." Azula taunted, as she dodged Zuko's swords again. "You didn't need a weapon before."

"And I still don't." Zuko answered back, as he threw his broadswords down and leapt at his sister. But Azula ducked that move, which sent Zuko flying into Oscuirdad, who had been preparing for a sneak attack. The two crashed into each other with a huge impact, and fell to the ground.

"Pathetic." Azula sneered, as she began to call the lightning again. But before she could, a staff suddenly was thrust over her head and pulled back against her neck. As Azula gasped under the strain, Jin asked, "Remember me, bitch?"

But the Fire Princess had been trained well, and she quickly bent forward, forcing Jin off. But the young Earth Kingdom girl had been trained too, and she rode the pull and managed to turn in mid-air and land on her feet.

"Not bad, for someone weak enough to like my brother." Azula croaked out as she massaged her throat.

"You have no idea." Jin snarled, as she whirled forward with her staff. But Azula raised her arm, and deflected the blow, though Jin was quick to recover. The Earth Kingdom girl pressed forward for a minute longer, then brought the staff around in a sweeping arc to knock Azula off her feet. The Fire Princess leapt over it, but a t the last second, Jin brought her staff back up, slamming it into Azula's chest and knocking her down. Jin grinned, but before she could take advantage, something poked her in the side and her arms went numb. There was another poke, and then Jin's legs followed, causing her to collapse to the ground.

"Nice try girl." Azula said, as Ty Lee helped her back to her feet. "But you didn't have a chance." With that, Azula's fist ignited and the Fire Princess reared back to deliver the killing blow.

But before Azula could deliver the blow, there was an explosion in the air that caused everyone to stop. The Knights, knowing just what that sound was, began to look around for the source. The Chief looked over, and gaped as he saw Johnson standing with his smoking gun in his hand. The Knights saw it too, and looked over at their friends, praying that they were all right. But before they could see anything, they received their answer in the form of a loud gasp from Azula. Everyone whipped around to see the Fire Princess pointing at Ty Lee in abject horror. It was then that they all saw the shock in the acrobat's eyes, the red stain that was slowing growing over her shirt. Ty Lee saw it then too. She looked down at herself, then slowly raised her head back and looked at Azula. She began to say something as a dribble of blood began to run from her mouth, but then her eyes rolled back into her head, and she fell forward into Azula's arms.