Well here we are starting book II!
After the epic failure of "the Last Airbender" I figured we all needed some relief.
Anyhoo we pick the gang up as they are trekking to Omashu.
AEWFS Ch11: Not-so-Happy Returns
"I'd rather kiss you than die!" Shio asked disbelievingly, "you actually said that to her?"
Shio and Aang were hanging behind the rest of the group on their way to see King Bumi in the City of Omashu; Aang was telling Shio what had happened to him and Katara in the Cave of two lovers.
"Yeah," said Aang blushing and avoiding eye contact, "I felt pretty stupid afterwards."
"Well you should have! You blew it man! That was your big chance!" said Shio throwing up his hands in exasperation.
"Well it turned out alright in the end; we actually almost kissed as the torch went out." Aang said adopting a dreamy look on his face.
"Well that's different," said Shio, "Good for you, just take it slowly and eventually it'll pay off, or so I've been told." Shio said slapping Aang on the back.
Aang looked at Shio oddly, "You're awfully unbothered by this," he said, "I thought you liked her too?"
"I did, well I still do; but the way I see it you met her first so I think you get dibs."
Aang was about to reply when Sokka yelled from the front of the group, "I present to you the Earth Kingdom city of O-" he stopped in mid-sentence at the sight of the city.
"Oh crap," Shio finished for him, "this makes things slightly more complicated."
They were looking at Omashu under Fire Nation rule; already the city looked much drearier.
"Omashu always seemed so…untouchable." said Aang sadly.
"It was," Sokka said bitterly, "Ba Sing Se is the last Earth Kingdom stronghold now."
Shio snorted, "At the rate the Fire Nation's going it won't be for long; but it's probably the safest place for us to be right now."
"No," said Aang firmly, "I'm going after Bumi."
"Aang…" said Katara gently, "someone else can teach you earthbending."
"This isn't about finding a teacher! This is about finding a friend! I'm going even if you three wont!" said Aang taking a step away from the other three.
Shio shrugged and stood next to Aang, "I'm in I liked King Bumi!"
Appa gave a bellow and lumbered over to Shio and Aang.
"Damn…" Sokka said dropping his head in defeat, "I guess we can't argue with our transportation." He sighed.
Soon they found themselves outside a drainage pipe in the outside of the city. As the Air Monk pried the cover off the hatch, noxious fumes hit the trio.
"Oh you have got to be kidding me…" Shio said.
"Nope!" replied Aang cheerfully.
"Remind me why I volunteered for this?" Shio asked as he stashed his broadsword in Aapa's saddle and adjusted his short swords so they couldn't be seen.
Five minutes later they surfaced in an abandoned street. Shio and Sokka emerged looking like things that came from the black lagoon. After being hosed off and air dried by Katara and Aang they discovered that they were covered in pentapusses. After yanking them off, they had several welts.
Shio pulled the dark glasses off his face now that it was dark enough for him to see, "Man, it's good to get these off," he said.
Sokka shivered, "Your eyes still creep me out."
"Be nice." said Katara elbowing him in the ribs.
"Hey! What are you kids doing?" a loud voice from behind them yelled.
The four of them turned and came face to face with a Fire Nation patrol. They managed to talk their way out of it by convincing the soldiers that Shio and Sokka had a case of "Pentapox": a very deadly and contagious disease. As the soldiers ran away in fear, they all breathed a sigh of relief and continued on their search for Bumi.
They were sneaking around the city's upper terrace, near the new construction project, when a loud rumbling sound caught the group's attention. They quickly spotted a bunch of boulders rolling towards a group walking on the level below them.
Without missing a beat, Aang blasted the boulders away with a tremendous blast of air.
"It's the resistance!" came a muffled shout from below.
One figure from the group bounded up to their tier and began to run at them.
"Run!" Shio yelled, "We've been made!"
The girl ran after the four firing arrows at them from wrist launchers. Aang whipped around and brought down some nearby scaffolding, blocking the girl's pursuit of them. The girl quickly whipped two throwing knives at the small monk; Aang brought his staff up to block but as he did he heard a metallic whine as two shuriken thrown by Shio whizzed by either side of his head and deflected those thrown by their mysterious assailant. As Shio prepared to throw more, the ground dropped out from under the Avatar's group, plunging them into a dimly lit cavern.
There they met the leader of the resistance. He said that on the day of the invasion Bumi had ordered Omashu's military to stand down and do nothing, so the fire nation had taken the city easily. The leader wanted to say in the city and fight, but Aang managed to convince him to get his people out of his city. They debated for a while on how to do this, until Sokka came up with a brilliant, everyone in the city came down with "Pentapox".
So the next day the entire population of the city lurched out of the city unbothered by the guards, who were all "pretty sure they had heard of pentapox".
Aang stayed in the city to search for Bumi and didn't return until late that night riding Bumi's pet "Flopsi."
"No Bumi…" Aang said sadly shaking his head. Katara came up and hugged him, knowing he needed all the support he could get.
Just then the leader of the resistance came up and informed them that they had found an extra person in their head count: a small Fire Nation baby, who was busy abusing Momo.
Later after they had settled in around the campfire, Aang made an announcement, "I'm going after Bumi again tomorrow."
"Aang it was dangerous enough this time, but now…" Katara said worriedly.
"You might not have to go after him," Shio said walking up, holding a letter in his hand, "I just got this from a messenger hawk, it's from the governor of Omashu! Apparently, we thus baby is his son, and he thinks we've kidnapped him! He's willing to trade the baby for Bumi!"
They arrived at the designated meeting point early the next morning; it was at the bottom of the construction project which turned out to be a massive statue of Fire Lord Ozai.
"I still say that this is a trap…" said Shio cynically.
"Nah," said Aang good-naturedly, "I've got a good feeling about this!"
"Knowing our luck it won't last long…" Shio said rolling his eyes behind his glasses.
No sooner had he said it then the Fire Nation party showed up; and Team Avatar all gasped. They party consisted of three people: the girl who had attacked them last night, an oddly dressed girl with a midriff baring outfit that no one recognized, the last girl everyone recognized
"It's Azula!" said Katara turning to run.
"Wait." said Shio grabbing her wrist, "She sees us but I'm not seeing any signs of recognition directed toward you three…play it cool for now.
"Well, well," said the Fire Princess in a drawling monotone, "Shio, what a surprise; I was a little surprised when they told me you had joined the other side. Is this what you've been doing while I've been in a coma for two months?"
"Yeah," replied Shio coolly, "I had a change of heart; I got sick of you treating me like crap." Without turning away from Azula, he spoke quietly to the group, "she really doesn't remember, she must have amnesia from when I hit her in the head with my sword."
"No matter," Azula said, "Proceed Mai," she said to the girl that had attacked them last night.
"Do you have my little brother?" she asked stepping forward.
"Right here. Do you have Bumi?" asked Aang
Mai gestured and Bumi was lowered down on a construction crane, his body entombed in a metal coffin.
"Hi everybody!" he said as he came to the ground.
They were about to make the trade, when Azula made a comment about how trading a king for a two-year old was unfair and Mai called off the deal.
Frustrated, Aang launched himself at Azula who blasted blue flames at him. Aang deftly dodged and started climbing after Bumi's retreating prison with Azula in hot pursuit.
That just left Mai and the girl with the long braid and midriff baring outfit. The girl with the braid, who was obviously an acrobat of some kind, tried to somersault over Katara and Shio's heads in order to get to Sokka and the baby, as Mai shot arrows at them as a distraction. ; But Shio and Katara firmly planted themselves in front of Sokka.
"Katara, you take the emo chick, the acrobat's mine…" Shio said sheathing his swords out of fairness, since the braided girl had no weapons.
As Mai and Katara moved off trading blows, the braided girl smirked at Shio and ran at him, trying to hit him with a series of lightning fast, two-fingered jabs at various points on his body; all of which Shio parried.
"Damn, you're quick," he said as he regained his balance, "But I'm just as fast," he said as he swept her feet out from under her. She turned her fall into a handspring and landed several meters away.
She smiled at him, obviously enjoying the challenge he presented. They ran at each other, trading blows, but neither able to land a solid hit. To an observer their hands would have looked like little more than blurs, they were moving so fast.
After several minutes they paused, breathing hard; then they launched themselves at each other. Each saw an opening and took it; each hit a pressure point at the base of the other's neck. Shio was familiar with the style the girl used and decided to try a move on her.
"Did you just-?" asked Shio.
"Oh dear," said the girl in a high-pitched, cheerful voice, "We landed a time-delay paralysis strike at the same time!"
"Seems so," Shio said, "We had better sit down, it's going to kick in in less than a minute."
"There it goes," the girl said almost as soon as they sat down.
"Same here," replied Shio, "at least that move gives us the freedom to still turn our heads."
"Yeah."
As Shio looked at the mysterious girl, he noted that she was quite beautiful; she had a perfect hourglass figure and the muscles of an athlete. Her long brown hair seemed to shimmer in the sunlight, and her eyes were the same color as his light brown ones; and she smelled wonderful, Shio couldn't place the smell but he was instantly attracted to it and to her.
"What?" she asked as she caught him staring at her.
"Nothing!" he said quickly, "So you're one of Azula's friends?"
"Yup! I'm Ty Lee, who are you?"
"You can call me S… ah hell, my name is Shio."
"Oh yeah! Azula told me about you! She said you were an amazing fighter; and you certainly didn't disappoint!"
"Well, thank you! You're very good yourself! It's been a long time since I've met someone who can keep up with my speed."
"Thanks!" she said smiling warmly at him.
"So, if you're one of Azula's friends, why have I never seen you before?"
"Well, I joined the circus about three years ago; right around the time you came along."
"You were in the circus?"
"Yup, I was an acrobat!"
"Surprise, surprise."
Ty Lee laughed; it sounded rather musical to Shio.
"Well, you smell awful nice after hanging around such a smelly environment." He said blushing.
She giggled, "Thanks! So why did you leave Azula? From what I heard, you two were pretty close."
"We were, but I got sick of her bossing me around; and honesty she was getting more and more…psychotic, for lack of a better word."
"I know what you mean," Ty Lee replied, her face adopting a more serious look, "she can be a bit much at times, but she's like a sister to me."
"Well if you ever do get sick of her," said Shio making a snap decision, "you're always welcome to join our group…"
"Why would I do that?" she asked with a puzzled expression, "I can't betray my friends!"
"Just an offer…" Shio said defensively.
Suddenly they saw Aang zip by with Bumi's prison with Katara and Sokka close behind him on Appa.
"Whoops!" said Shio standing up, "gotta go!"
"Wha-, how are you standing up?" asked Ty Lee staring in wonder.
"Easy, I know how to counter that move: tense the muscles in your neck at the moment of impact." He walked towards the edge.
"If you could move, why did you stay?" she asked
"you seemed like a very interesting person to talk to!" he replied blushing slightly, "Well it's been nice talking to you Ty Lee but I gotta go; think about my offer!"
"I will! Bye!" she replied cheerily.
Shio leapt off the edge and landed on Appa just as they passed under him."
"Wow," Ty Lee said to herself, "he's really cute!"
"Damn, she's hot…" Shio muttered to himself as he landed on Appa.
"What?" asked Katara.
"Nothing," replied Shio, "How did your fight go?"
"Alright," Katara said shrugging, "She landed a few blows but I won in the end. Yours?
"Alright, I think I made a new friend."
Katara raised an eyebrow but didn't make any further comments.
They picked up Aang after losing him while he was being chased by Azula.
He said they needed to find someone who listens before striking to teach him earthbending.
"Well we better start looking," Shio said absentmindedly, his mind lingering on the mysterious acrobat he had met so briefly. He hoped he'd see her again someday.
This is the first post from my new laptop!
Anyway sorry for not posting lately, I've been really busy!
"The blind Bandit" is up next!
Till next time!