Author's Notes: Here it is, chapter two. Originally, this chapter was going to introduce a young Firebender by the name of Sam. Fortunately, that idea has been scrapped…for now. Anyway, I forgot to list out the disclaimer for the Prologue, so I apologize if I broke some unwritten tradition/law.
Thanks for the reviews (and alerts), this Fic is definitely goin' to get more complicated as time goes on…I figured it was time we got something besides a Shipping-Spree in the Avatar section.
Disclaimer(s): I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender. If I did, season 3 would have already been out by now :P
lol, let's get on with the show:
Chapter One; Aftershocks.
"…As you can see, from the video and audio recordings of Chief Warrant Officer Vince Hong, and a personal account and retelling from him, he and the Covert Operations "Backup" were the only survivors of the failed cloning and resurrection of Avatar Aang."
The man speaking, Colonel Howard Ross, finished his presentation to the HighIntel Brass. Ten of the greatest minds and leaders known to the human race, not one of them would be revealed in either name or rank by noon that day.
Standing at precisely six feet, five inches tall, Ross had his hands firmly clasped in the small of his back, and a military-verified crew cut atop his face.
Clearing his throat, Ross began again, "As of this morning, Hong has been sent to a military-backed hospital, where he will be given a debriefing and sent to rehabilitation for the next few months." He attempted to read some form of sympathy for the man from the gathered Brass, but their combined features revealed nothing.
An elderly man with a remotely basset-hound-like face spoke up, "what about the remains? Have they been recovered and taken care of?"
For the first time that day Ross smiled, though he kept it to himself, "yes sir, all debris of the…conflict have been disposed of. The 167th brigade, presenting security for the experiment, will now show up on all military lists as having been MIA in a battle with rogue Benders to the far south. A fictional battle, of course. But I'm sure it will not hurt the image of Benders in the eyes of the public."
A raven-haired woman to Ross' distant right crookedly inquired, "what of the quarantine zone? I take it none of our equipment survived the attack?"
He replied with a simple shake of the head.
The brass murmured amongst themselves for about five minutes, and then the same woman from before issued his leave.
Giving a crisp salute, Ross turned on his heel and left the room. He proceeded down the corridor, flashed his identification card to the silent guards at the elevator, and continued on his way.
Several uneventful minutes later, Ross was escorted to a helicopter-identical to the ones from the night before, only without the menacing machine gun turrets and missile pods.
Boarding said craft, it promptly flew off into the rising sun.
A massive column of men adorned in crimson armor with black and gold motifs slowly marched across a field. The first rank was unarmed-they were the Benders of the army. Behind them was an incredible block of pikemen-they looked more like a phalanx of trees than men. Behind them still, an immense contingent of archers stood in a battle-ready stance, arrows nocked and eyes opened. Suddenly, an opposing-yet easily dwarfed-army of men in green and brown charged the first army, a flotilla of boulders crashing into the ranks of Fire Nation troops. Above them a single figure appeared-a man, with the clothes and tattoos of an Airbender. He was suspended from a strange, glider-like staff. He circled over the field of charging Earthbenders, and, landing, lifted an elephant-sized hunk of rock into the air, and hurled it into the midst of the Fire Nation army…crushing more than a few soldiers in the process.
Meanwhile, despite having the element of surprise, the Earthbenders were slowly being both outclassed and outnumbered, for every man they defeated, a score of them would take his place! Several Earthbenders attempted a suicide tactic; combining their prowess, they opened up an abyss in the midst of the clashing lines, sending both themselves and thousands of others to their deaths.
But it was not enough.
Now outdistanced as well, the Earthbenders had to raise shields of stone where they would have thrown these rocks at their enemies, as it literally began to rain arrows-many of them accompanied by a blazing contrail.
The wall was beginning to buckle, when the Avatar entered the fray.
Announcing his arrival on the field of battle, Aang created a spinning dome of air, sending an entire regiment of swordsmen and Firebenders into the blistering sky. The dome began to fade; a furious barrage of flames escaped from inside of it, cooking soldiers alive in their own armor.
The Earthbenders behind him began to cheer, and used their previous shield to bridge the abyss that had swallowed so many men that day. Just as they began to cross it, however, a bright light lit up the sky…the Fire Lord had come.
The light faded, and a middle-aged woman turned to her class. She opened her wrinkle-outlined mouth to speak, "Here, in the Battle by the Sea, is where they turning point came about for one hundred years of history." She paused; letting those words sink into the minds of her not-caring class. Lifting her head slightly at a mental quip, she sniffed quietly and continued, "at this point in the battle, Fire Lord Ozai entered the fray. Having captured the mystical properties of Sozin's Comet, he was more than a match for the Earth and Waterbenders allied against him, even with the leadership of Avatar Aang. They had a climactic duel," at this point the class perked up, "however, our current methods of holograms and visual technologies cannot provide a suitable visual of said battle." There were several-albeit unnoticed-moans of displeasure from the class, and the instructor continued on with her lecture/torture sequence, "Fortunately for us, the Avatar proved successful in his combat, tapping into previously unknown powers to cast the Fire Lord into the abyss, and he sealed it with a combination of the four elements via Bending. We will, however, show the Fire Nation army's retreat from the field of battle, by those warships that survived the Water Tribe's aquatic onslaught, that is."
As the closing stages of the battle played themselves out, the room's temperature increased by several degrees, prompting the instructor to reformat the climate control to a reasonable degree. Several of the more pale-skinned, dark-haired students in the room clenched their fists, and gritted their teeth.
Their day would come.