That Night
Ming Baifou and Lin Xiung were running for their lives throughout the streets of the slums. An army jeep was hot on their pursuit and one prison guard tried to shoot them down with his pistol. But then, they were cornered in an alley. The jeep was closing on them, three jail guards jumped out and cocked their rifles and took aim at Bafiou and Lin.
"Well, looks like you have us beat!" Lin said with a smile that raised his mustache
"Put your hands up! Drop all weapons!" one of the guards yelled out
"You honestly think a smart man like me would carry a weapon? Do I look dangerous to you? Do I?" Lin asked
"Hands up, right now!" the guard yelled out.
"He won't obey, let's just shoot!" The guards took aim and fired, but then Lin lifted a stone slab from the ground that stopped the bullets. He then pushed the stone and it totaled the jeep and smashed the driver's body. The other three guards ran off like cowards.
"Wow, that was good earth bending...WHY DIDN'T YOU DO THAT EARLIER!?" Baifou said in a hissy fit.
"I observe the rules of engagement. I only fight when they cast the first stone." Lin explained
Lin Xiung moved the bricks out of his way, creating a passage through the brick wall that doomed them.
"Come on, follow me." Lin asserted
At the Youth Camp
Aang was unloaded off a damp and smelly train car where young children were packed like sardines. Aang finally got used to his youth guard uniform although he preferred to wear his Air nomad outfit much more. Aang walked to the gates into the walled camp, his ears were irritated by the propaganda speaker towers.
"THE YOUTH ARE THE GLORY OF THIS COUNTRY, THE REPUBLIC AND THE REVOLUTION COME FIRST!! THE REVOLUTION IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE FAMILY, IT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR OWN NEEDS!!" those were the propaganda messages the speaker tower spouted out
Aang walked through the gates smiled at the sight of children playing and earth bending.
"Finally, my chance to re-learn earth bending!" Aang said with joy.
"You are Aojin, right?" the instructor gave him a stern look
"Um..." Aang remembers his given name "yes!"
Aang walked up to the Earth bending instructor and asked to be part of the class but the instructor told him to beat it.
"You need to work on the fields today, you will have Earth bending lessons later!" the instructor told him.
"Later, when?" Aang asked anxiously
"On Saturday!"
Aang knew today was Monday and despaired
"Tomorrow, you will be working in the workshop. Wednesday and Thursday are your general education days where you will learn language, math and science. Friday is the day you will learn proper ethics and revolutionary behavior." the instructor read from his schedule
Aang walks to the farming fields grumbling. He was assigned the task of harvesting millet. He was given an old rusty scythe to cut the stocks, and he was given bands so he could bundle the millet and carry the bundles on his back. After cutting up three bundles, he took the millet to the miller. To his surprise the person grinding the grain looked very familiar, she has tied up black hair, hazel eyes, she could blink...nor could she see...Aang mistook her for Toph
"TOPH!!" Aang tries to hug her
The girl could detect Aang running towards her by feeling the ground. She grabbed Aang before he could lay a finger on her and slammed him to the ground.
"What the hell is your problem twinkle toes?" the girl asked harshly
"Toph, it's you!!...wait, your name is Toph, right?
"Who the hell is that?! Your imaginary friend? My name is Laph..Laph Bai Fong! You'd better get it right next time twinkle toes, or else I'll stick a rock up your gut!"
Aang knew very well that Laph is an Earth bending prodigy just by how she could detect his movements with her feet on the ground
In the country sides near Hangkang
Lin was admiring the beautiful scenery of the rice paddys, forests and karst mountains (the tall and narrow limestone "mountains" commonplace in Southern China). He enjoy the peaceful scenery that was very much different from the congested and polluted cities. Baifou on the other hand grew impatient and lit a cigarette. He has been through the area many times.
"You want one? It gets awfully boring here." Baifou offered Lin a smoke
"No thanks, I am just having too much fun enjoying the scenery." Lin responded
"Meh, I've been through here many times, there is a farming village nearby, next to a lake around here." Baifou tells Lin
"I really like how you know this area well. It could in handy when fighting the ERRA or the Fire Nation." Lin tells Baifou
"Well I also made quite a few maps...they're not perfect but I'm not a very perfect man either."
"Yea, I know...that's why you remind me of Fai Qin, one of my characters from one of my fictions. He was a rather unfortunate man, he was a peasant who brown-nosed his feudal masters and a mindless opponent to the revolution. I wrote and published that book right after the revolution took place and the Earth Kingdom fell." Lin explained
"Are you calling me stupid? Baifou looked at him with some angery
"No no no! It's good think that you're such a complex character...simple people bore me."
"So, it's an insult comment...I see how it is!"
Lin then grabs Baifou and pulls him down into the rice paddy, they hide in the rice paddy as they see ERRA patrolmen on the back of their ostrich horses, the soldiers had their rifles slung over their back, a sword in their sheath on their side and they each carried a pistol armed, ready to fire in one hand, they used their other hand to control their ostrich horses. On patrolmen observes the rice paddies.
"Hmm, they must have went into the village over there already." one patrolman remarks
"Whoa, they got there that fast on feet?" the second patrolman asked
"Well, Lin Xiung is a dangerous earth bender..he probably skated on the ground to get there" another patrolman remarked
They ride away into the village.
At the Youth Guard Camp
Today was Aang's day to work in with his hands in the workshop. He stands between two girls in the rifle assembly area. Aang observed the rifle carefully and quickly learned which parts go where. He then assembled the rifle at a very quick pace.
"I'm done!" Aang said
"Good, good, good! You will be a very productive member of our republic Aojin, we are pleased with you...you mold very well." the factory foreman told him
"Thank you sir!" Aang replied graciously
"Today we shall do something about your little Air Nomad arrow, the air nomads are kaputt, there is no need to try to look like extinct people." the foreman added "So we're going to have you wash that silly thing off!" the foreman said with a stern voice
Aang gasped, not wanting to be found out. "What, I can't! It's a birthmark!"
"Do you think I was born yesterday? I've lived longer than you and the air benders have been extinct before I was even born, that means they went extinct before you were born." the foreman said without at all knowing who Aang truly is.
Aang was taken to the showers, he was told to clean the mark on head. He tried scrubbing hard on his forehead.
"Hmm, you're right...it won't come off." Camp counselor Gui said. "You know boy, I heard from Kyoshi refugees that we've processed into the country that avatar Aang is still alive. And I heard from a prison warden that you called yourself Aang. Are you Aojin or Aang?" Gui asked
"Um...I want to put rifles together now..." Aang responded nervously
Gui pulled out his .45 pistol and aimed it at Aang. "I've read about the avatar, there is only one way to know for sure..." Just as Gui was about to pull the trigger on his .45 pistol, Laph comes into the counselor's office in a comma. She goes crazy with her earth bending. Gui was knocked out and the camp guards tried to counter Laph's superior earth bending with their own. They were easily knocked out by her ability to bend concrete and composite earth. After killing the guards, Laph grabs Aang's arms and made a run for it.
At the Village
"Do you think the coast is clear? Are those soldiers still in there?" Lin asked
"Nope, but we should do something about them...they harassing the people there." Baifou said
Baifou loads up his pistol.
"You seriously aren't thinking about going in there just by yourself. You're just one man and you weren't even trained for combat...only for scouting and exploring."
"But those ERRA goons are making a disgrace of themselves."
The ERRA soldiers in the village threatened to occupy the village and make life hell for the civilians. One soldier got off his ostrich horse and threatened to shoot an old lady's head off.
"I hear there are some damn rebels in this village!" The soldier yelled out as the old woman cried
"TELL ME YOU OLD BITCH! WHERE ARE THEY, WHERE ARE THEIR ARMAMENTS!?" the sergeant yelled out, he then punted the lady's neck with his rifle butt.
"Fucking bitch...I guess we'll have to set an example for them." the sergeant suggested.
"YOU'RE THE BITCH AROUND HERE! Baifou charged at them, shooting two of the soldiers with his revolver. "Oh shit!" The soldiers fired back with their automatic rifles, they sprayed bullets at Baifou in both his thighs, he falls down and tries to crawl away.
Then a guerilla pops out of a two-story building window and capped one of the soldier's head with his rifle. Another guerilla throws a Molotov cocktail near a haystack, creating a fire and startling the ostrich horses, the riders were knocked off into the conflagration. The shooter squeezed off two more shots into two ERRA soldiers. A woman with black hair and bangs covering one eye rides into town mounted on her blind animal. The beast stabbed the sergeant in the neck with it's toungue rendering paralyzing him. She unmounted her animal, she was a rather tall woman by Earth Republic standards wearing jackboots, a green ERRA trench coat she wears as spoils from killing an ERRA major with the Earth Republic insignia torn off. He she stepped on the sergeant's groin and smashed it. The sergeant struggled but then the lady put him out of his misery with his own gun.
"You were a very nice young man, thanks for letting me have your gun." She said with a grin.
She then looked over at Baifou "you're not a wise man at all, aren't you? Normally, I'd have you killed for being one of them, but I think I'll trust you for now." she told Baifou
Lin Xiung walked up to her, a short man like Lin only reached her lower neck.
"How are you doing today June?" he asked with a small smile.
"Fine...I see you brought along an offical-man, are you sure we can trust him?" June asked rather anxiously
"Yes, yes...I will watch him, me and the other guerillas will watch him. We can't just kill him, he may be stupid in some respects, but he's a good map maker, he knows the lands well...and he escape from the Fire Nation navy alive!" Lin told her with a larger grin
The guerilla soldiers tied Baifou's hands, and he was escorted by guerillas black ninja style clothes with a blade to his neck and a rifle pointed to his back
Meanwhile
Night feel, Aang and Laph are trying to navigate through the mountainous regions.
"What has gotten into you Laph?" Aang asked curiously
"It doesn't concern you twinkle toes!" Laph punched Aang in the gut. She then took off her white star cap and threw it into the ground, she bends dirt on it, burying it.
"I hate this place, I hate being a youth guard! They always limit your abilities, they only want you to do government sponsored earth bending...you know why? Those corrupt assholes are afraid of skilled earth bendings overthrowing them...it's been like this since former Dai Li agents and monarchists revolted against the republic ten years ago! This government is paranoid!" Laph explained
"And they don't care about the threat the Fire Nation possess?" Aang asked "That's messed up!"
Laph and Aang walked further into the still untamed Earth Republic country sides. Laph craves adventure, Aang wants to re-learn Earth bending from her and head to Ba Sing Se to try to warn the government of the Fire Nation. Baifou makes new friends among the rebels...but still has yet to earn their trust and see things from their point of view.