Alright! Eight chaps! Let's get this party started! Shout out to Shade Adriel, superkawaiifoxy, mystery writer5775, charizardag, Talon88.1, Music is my BFF, wtfbrunteesoftball, Rexic and Soulia, and Guardian of Balance. I've received some requests that I make a reference to Katara's new bloodbending powers. Rest assured I'll create a situation where she'll be forced to use them but for now she's just too nice to bloodbend another human being unless she absolutely had to. I own nothing but my OC's. Read and enjoy!
The Search for Shang-wēifēng
Chapter Eight:
The Sun Warrior City
Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors crept silently through the night. It had been a day since this strange girl, Smellerbee, had released them from their prison. Ami carried her sleeping sister Tsui on piggyback, while Yukari allowed Megumi to lean against her.
It had been a day since their escape from the Earth King's Palace.
- - -
Smellerbee had guided them outside to the courtyard where her companion, Longshot, a lithe wiry young man with wide straw hat and an arrow knocked and ready to fire in his taut bow, was waiting with a gentle-faced girl introduced as Song. Then Smellerbee whistled shrilly and a great roar sounded from inside the palace. Panicked shouts and cries of fear were accompanied by an approaching lumbering and suddenly a huge goat-gorilla with big floppy ears crashed towards them and stopped short of trampling the waiting Smellerbee. It then sat on its haunches and panted, looking at the Kyoshi Warriors with big curious green eyes.
"Hello there Sparkles," greeted Song, smiling.
"I told you," muttered Smellerbee. "His name's General Bruiser."
"But I think Sparkles suits him better," insisted Song. "Besides, he likes it, don't you Sparkles?"
The goat-gorilla bent over and slobbered all over the Earth Kingdom girl's face.
"We'll discuss it later," barked Smellerbee, as Song smilingly wiped the saliva with her sleeve. "I've sprung the political prisoners and some of them look like they could use your healing touch, Song. Longshot, I need you and the General to cover our escape, but don't either of you stay any longer than you have to. And if any Dai Li show up you definitely, run full tilt in the other direction. Got it?"
Longshot nodded and General Bruiser/Sparkles, bowed his head so that the boy could straddle his neck then went bounding back towards the Palace.
"Good luck Longshot," called Song. "You too Sparkles."
"General Bruiser," growled Smellerbee. "Now let's get the hell out of here. Those Dai Li should still be busy on Twitch's end, but they'll be onto our diversion soon enough. So let's haul ass to the safe house."
"No need for such language Smellerbee," said Song.
"Hey," retorted the girl with the painted face. "There are situations that call for swearing and this is definitely one of them."
She then turned to Suki. "Can you fight?"
She nodded.
"But Suki," protested Myo. "Your arm."
"It's fine," the Kyoshi Warrior assured her younger companion.
"But..."
Suki placed an assuring hand on the other girl's shoulder. "Trust me."
Smellerbee handed her a long knife and passed other blades to the Warriors well enough to fight.
"Okay," said Smellerbee quietly. "Just stay low and follow me."
They hugged the shadows, making their way towards the guard houses that flanked the main gates.
"Crap," hissed Smellerbee as they drew nearer. Two guards were stationed at the gates, but they didn't wear the crimson armor of the Fire Nation. They were garbed in green and black robes with a wide dome-shaped hat emblazoned with the crest of the Earth Kingdom.
Suki's heart sank. Dai Li agents, the merciless hounds of Azula. Their cruelty outstripped even that of the Fire Nation inquisitors. Yukari's grip tightened so that her knife was shaking. Once, after one of her sessions of torment with the Dai Li, they brought her back weeping and cradling bleeding fingers. Her nails still hadn't grown back.
Suki placed a hand on her comrade's shoulder, fearing that she might bolt and exact her vengeance on the two guards, killing them all in the process.
"Easy," she whispered.
All at once the Dai Li slid in two separate directions narrowly evading the explosion of dirt and debris. From the dust emerged a lean muscular youth, probably a year or two older than Suki, with high cheekbones, a square jaw, and long shaggy black hair, held back from his dark eyes with a yellow bandanna with black stripes. He might have been good-looking but for the bushy uni-brow. All in all he had the scruffy appearance of a street thug.
"Anyone order an escape route?" inquired the young man smartly.
"Blockhead?" demanded Smellerbee. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be with Twitch at the University."
"Some of the blasting jelly set and wouldn't light so we had to bail," shrugged the earthbender. "And I really wish you'd let us pick our own codenames."
"Less talking more ass-hauling," barked the girl. "Or I'll change it back to Mono-brow...LOOK OUT!"
Just then, a Dai Li materialized from the, the dust cloud and earthbent his stone gloves at the youth who smoothly ducked into a crouch, as the deadly projectiles drilled into the stone wall, swiped his leg in a wide arch and sent a wave of cobblestones crashing into the agent, burying him beneath a heap of rock.
"Upper Ringers," sighed Blockhead, shaking his shaggy mane, almost emphatically. "Never stood a chance."
He then examined the Kyoshi Warriors.
"These the political prisoners you liberated?" inquired the brawler. "Not much to look at, but then again they never are, fresh from the pit."
"Chun!" scolded Song. "Be nice! These girls have been through a terrible ordeal and a few of them need medicine."
"Sorry Song," grumbled Blockhead, rolling his eyes. Just then the other Dai Li lunged at the boy but before anyone could shout a warning to him an arrow found its mark in the agent's neck and he fell to the ground gurgling before going still.
All eyes turned to find Longshot riding the goat-gorilla towards them and knocking another arrow in place.
"Alright ladies," grinned Blockhead before adding, "And Longshot. I've got like twelve Dai Li on my tail."
"How long do we have?" asked Song.
"They should be here any second," answered the earthbender.
Smellerbee looked at the boy levelly. "You've got a plan, right?"
"Yup," answered Blockhead. "But you're not gonna like it."
"I never do," sighed the girl.
"Just step outside and let me work my magic," smirked the uni-browed earthbender giving Suki a wink.
As they all filed through the main gates, Blockhead arranged them into a circle around himself. Suki heard the approach of many booted feet and shouted commands coming from both the Palace and the main street leading up to the Palace. Whatever the earthbender had planned it wouldn't work fast enough. She looked up at the moon and prayed before it suddenly disappeared and she was overcome with a falling sensation that ended with a splash.
As she regained her bearings, and the first thing that overcame her was the stench.
"The sewers?" groaned Smellerbee. "You were right. I didn't like it."
It didn't take long for Suki's eyes to adjust to the dim glow of the hanging glow-stones that lined the walls of the cavernous passages of murky water filled with garbage and others things she didn't want to think about. Blockhead had used his earthbending to flip the section of street they were standing on and deposit them here. She fought down a gag. The stink was suffocating.
"Hey," protested the street fighter flicking a wad of soaked paper away. "I got us away didn't I?"
Everyone just held their nose and directed flat stares at Blockhead, even the goat-gorilla.
"Pfft! Whatever!" snorted Blockhead. "Come on," he said trudging through the murk. "Twitch is waiting at my old house in the Lower Ring."
"Blockhead suits him," muttered Myo to Smellerbee, who only nodded.
After what seemed like hours of wading through the sewers, Blockhead, stopped at a ladder that led up to a manhole cover, which he then climbed, tentatively lifted the cover and peered outside.
"The coast is clear," he called back down to the others as he scrambled out.
One by one, they all crawled out of the manhole except for the goat-gorilla.
"What are we going to do about Sparkles?" asked Song.
"There should be an aqueduct pipe that leads out fo the city," said Smellerbee. "He should be okay. But he'll reek for months."
"Bye Sparkles," called the Earth Kingdom girl. "See you at the safe house."
The goat-gorilla tossed his head and bounded into the shadows.
"I keep telling you it's General Bruiser," gritted Smellerbee. "Ugh! I don't say this often but I seriously need to bathe. And burn my clothes."
"Come on," said Blockhead. "We're close to my old house."
The brawler led the company down a dingy old alleyway. All around were seedy-looking characters, some as grimy and filthy as Suki felt. Some looked even filthier. A lean scar-faced man was offering a wickedly curved sword to a heavy-set bald man with piercings all over his face, and a tattooed serpent coiled around his arm. Over to the side two men were wrestling and pummeling one another senseless but no one else paid them much mind. A few fellows were even placing bets.
"Ah," sighed the earthbender. "Good ol' Ruffian Row. I used to be the reigning champ here."
"Of what?" asked Yukari, looking uncertainly at a yellow-toothed man who leered at the group.
"Busting heads and kicking ass!" grinned Blockhead, giving Yukari a wink. "My old house is right around here."
They came to a wooden door stuck in the wall, and the brawler tapped it twice, paused, then knocked three more times.
After a moment the door creaked open and a pale, skinny, rat-faced boy with protruding front teeth and a nervous tick in his eye peered out.
"W-w-w-w-w-w-w-what h-h-h-h-h-happened to you?" he stuttered.
"Had to take a detour through the sewers," explained Blockhead.
"S-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-sewers?!" hissed the rat-faced boy, whom Suki decided was Twitch.
"Relax," said Song gently. "We'll rinse off, then make our way to the safe house."
"Germs," said Twitch as though entranced. "Germs. Germs. Germs."
"We told you we'll clean up!" snapped Smellerbee. "Now let us in."
"Germs," answered Twitch.
"Twitch," said Smellerbee levelly. "If you don't step out of the way right now I'm going to take you in a headlock and wipe all this gunk off on you."
The rat-faced boy blinked and his eye quivered violently before he reluctantly stepped aside to admit them. Blockhead's "old house" turned out to be little more than a small room with a bed and a tub. Once they were all inside, Twitch stared at them in disbelief.
"Now what?" demanded Smellerbee.
"Crowded room," he answered. "V-v-v-v-very...c-c-c-c-c-c-c-crowded..."
"Chun," sighed Song. "Could you and Longshot take Twitch to the public baths to wash up?"
"They're closed at this hour," protested the earthbender.
"So?" asked Smellerbee.
"Why can't we use the one here while you all go?" asked Blockhead.
"Because the Fire Nation and the Dai Li'll be looking for six Kyoshi girls," answered Smellerbee. "Just take a bath there and once you're done, let him take one and guard the door. Remember what happened the last time?"
"You want me and Longshot to play bouncer so Captain Courage here could take a bath?" asked Blockhead.
"Yes," answered the Earth Kingdom girl.
Half of the earthbender's uni-brow rose in incredulity, before he shrugged. "Alright, come on Twitch."
"DON'T TOUCH ME!" shrieked Twitch jumping away from the other boys.
"I wasn't going to," said Blockhead levelly.
"K-k-k-keep your g-g-g-g-germs to yourself," stammered the rat-faced boy. "And stop breathing my air!"
As they left Longshot turned around and twirled a finger by his ear and whistled before closing the door behind him.
There was a silence, except for the rustling of Smellerbee and Song removing their soiled garments.
"Is he..." Suki started before pausing to carefully choose her words before going on. "...okay?"
"No," answered Smellerbee bluntly, removing her boots. "But believe it or not he's scary smart. I swear he can fix anything. Says he's from Gaoling to the south and came to Ba Sing Se to study mechanics at the University but he had to change his plans after the coup, and the school was turned into a recruitment facility for the Dai Li. He also knows all there is to know about blasting jelly. Trust me he's useful in a pinch. Just don't touch him."
"Noted," smiled Suki. She was gradually feeling like her old self the further she got from that prison. Even Azula's cruel words were fading.
"Where did you find a goat gorilla?" wheezed Tsui.
"Actually," smiled Song. "Sparkles found us."
"General Bruiser," said Smellerbee shooting a glare at the other girl. "Just wandered into our camp one night and he's been with us since."
"What about that Blockhead guy?" asked Myo.
"Chun lived here in the Lower Ring," said Song. "He says he used to run around with his own street gang up until the coup. After that, he and his friends tried to fight off the Fire Nation but they all got captured. By the time Smellerbee and Longshot got him out he was the only one they hadn't executed. He swore he'd make the Dai Li and the Fire Nation pay for killing his friends."
"That's awful," said Megumi.
"Just more of the same for us Freedom Fighters," snorted Smellerbee now down to her small clothes.
"What about you?" asked Suki carefully.
Smellerbee and Song looked at her levelly. Finally the girl with the painted face said, "I'm going to get cleaned up. After I'm done I'll get you and your friends some fresh clothes. Won't be anything fancy but they'll suffice. Better make sure you scrub all that runny makeup off too."
Suki wondered if she had offended the other girls when Tsui gave way to a coughing fit.
"I'd better get my medicine case," said Song, also down to her small clothes. As she walked across the tiny apartment, Suki noticed the livid burns on the Earth Kingdom girl's legs and decided that some things were better left unsaid.
The sick girls had managed to sleep through the rest of the night with the help of Song's medicine and the fresh clean green robes Smellerbee had found for all of them, but it wasn't long before a now-clean Blockhead and Longshot burst through the door, followed by Twitch who was quivering like a leaf.
"We gotta go," said the earthbender.
"Now," said the archer, speaking for the first time since Suki had met him.
They filed out of the tiny apartment, swiftly and silently and found that five Fire Nation soldiers and a Dai Li were stalking through Ruffian Row, grabbing passerby after passerby to question them. There was no doubt in Suki's mind thy were searching for her and the others.
"Okay," said Smellerbee. "Here's what we're gonna do. First Longshot'll take Ami and Tsui first. Then I want Song to count to five before following him with Myo and Yukari. Then Me, Blockhead, and Twitch'll take Suki and Megumi."
The Freedom Fighters all nodded to one another and put the plan in motion. Longshot escorted Ami and Tsui, passing the searchers without incident. Moments later they were followed by Song, with Myo and Yukari.
"Alright, it's our turn," whispered Smellerbee. "Don't draw attention to yourselves and follow my lead."
Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors lifted their hoods to cover their faces and quietly followed after the Freedom Fighters. Just as they had reached the mouth of the alley she heard a harsh, "Hey!"
They all turned to find the Dai Li agent looking at them. "What are you kids doing out here?" he demanded gruffly. "It's past curfew."
"I'm afraid it's my cousins sir," said Smellerbee quickly. "They're sick and need a doctor."
On cue, Megumi started coughing violently. The Dai Li cocked his head and peered at Twitch suspiciously. "What's wrong with him?"
"Oh my brother suffers from the Shake-n-Quakes," said Blockhead.
"I-I-I-I do?" asked Twitch, receiving an elbow in the chest from Smellerbee.
"Yes," said the street fighter. "The Shake-n-Quakes. Very rare but very contagious.
Basically you keep shaking 'til you just can't shakes no more."
"Oh Spirits!" exclaimed Twitch looking at his hand in horror. "It's true! It's true! I can't stop shaking!"
"Oh no!" exclaimed Suki, shaking her hand violently. "Now I'm shaking too!"
"It's spreading fast!" gasped Smellerbee. "We need a doctor stat!"
"Al-alright," said the Dai Li, covering his mouth. "Move along quickly and don't let me catch you kids after dark again."
"SHAKE-N-QUAKES!" shrieked Twitch as they hurried down the darkened streets.
- - -
It took them an hour before they finally managed to calm Twitch down and convince him that the Shake-n-Quakes weren't a real disease, but after that they managed to leave the confines of the Inner Wall and make it into the surrounding farmlands where the promised safe house was. They traveled through the day and into the evening on the dirt paths long the canal grids that brought water to the fields and separated the properties from one another. Farmers and their wives were hard at work tilling the soil with their children and farmhands, life left relatively unchanged by the Fire Nation occupation.
"Wait'll you meet Grizzly," said Smellerbee brightly.
"'Grizzly'?" asked Yukari. "How did he get that nickname?"
"Is he big and hairy?" grinned Myo, her spirits considerably lighter the further they got from the inner city.
"Actually," snickered Blockhead. "He's kind of a wuss. We just call him Grizzly 'cuz he's got a bear."
"You mean platypus-bear?" wheezed Megumi.
"No," said Song. "Just a bear."
"Surely you mean..." began Yukari, before Smellerbee cut her off. "No. Not a skunk-bear, gopher-bear, or an armadillo-bear. Just. A. Bear."
The Kyoshi Warriors gawked at her in stunned amazement, except for Tsui who muttered something about frozen frogs in her sleep.
"I didn't believe it at first either," said Song.
"I still don't believe it," said Blockhead.
"I-I-it's an ab-b-b-b-b-bomination," muttered Twitch, shuddering as though the thought of such an amazing animal's existence were offensive.
"Oh stop," said Song. "Bosco's cute."
Suddenly Longshot held up his hand and the company came to a halt. Then he crouched to the ground and the others followed suit.
"What's going on?" whispered Suki.
"Dai Li," hissed Smellerbee. "And they got the safe house surrounded."
- - -
"I thought this thing could move faster," griped Zuko sourly glaring at everything in sight.
Appa bellowed in discontent.
"Be nice to Appa," scolded Aang from his place atop the great animal's neck.
"Yeah," added Katara. "It's not easy for him to carry the combined weight of you and your ego."
Zuko grunted but didn't answer.
Aang sighed. Since departing from the others the sun had sank passed its zenith and was making its way toward the western horizon and the waterbender and Fire Prince had done nothing but fight. When they weren't bickering they were sitting in sullen silence. It was even worse than when Toph first joined them. He just wanted everyone to get along, but he knew it wasn't easy for Katara to let go of Zuko's betrayal beneath Ba Sing Se. After all it had lead to Azula killing him.
Aang shuddered, and not against the cold wind of the high altitude. The wound on his back where the Fire Princess's lightning had struck him, and the exit wound on the sole of his foot, were more than just scars. He had died, and Katara had revived him with water from the Spirit Oasis. But he had lost something in that exchange. He had not attempted to go into the Avatar State since the Impenetrable City's fall, but he knew that his connection to the energy that embodied the Avatar Spirit had been disrupted, nearly severed completely.
He was ashamed to admit that a part of him was grateful. While he was in the Avatar State he felt as though he were engulfed in a sea of other consciousness, struggling to stay afloat or risk losing himself. More than that, he dreaded the price that mastery of the Avatar State demanded.
"There it is."
Aang snapped back to the present at Zuko's rasp from behind him.
"Is that it?" asked Katara, frowning in the direction Zuko pointed. Atop her shoulder,
Momo chattered earnestly.
The Avatar looked down and found several large pyramid-like structures peeking out above the forest canopy.
"The Sun Warrior City," Aang said just above a whisper as he circled Appa for a landing. He feared the Avatar State, just as he still feared fire. But, for everyone's sake, he had to find a way to master both.
- - -
"What do you mean 'stay here with Appa'?" groused Katara after they landed and dismounted. "You said I could come with you."
"And here you are," said Zuko, curtly. "I never said you could go into the city."
"Oh, I see," said Katara. "You're hoping to get Aang alone so you can truss him up and skip on back to the Fire Nation and worm your way back into daddy's good graces. Well I'm not..."
She stopped when she saw the expression on the Fire Prince's face. She had seen Zuko angry before. She had seen him enraged. But she had never seen the cold smoldering anger that burned in Zuko's golden eyes before now.
"Katara!" exclaimed Aang in shock and disappointment.
"That's it!" hissed Zuko, striding toward the waterbender challengingly. Though he was only inches taller than she was, Katara thought he almost loomed over her.
"Ever since I joined the Avatar, I've taken your put-downs, your jokes at my expense and your insults. And I took it because, frankly, I deserved every last bit of it. But don't you ever - ever - even suggest that I would go back to that man, after all he's done to the world - after all he's done to me!"
Katara gasped, and gazed into the Fire Prince's scarred face as though seeing it for the first time. She suddenly recalled the words he had spoken in the crystal catacombs.
"I used to think this scar marked me. The mark of a banished Prince, cursed to chase the Avatar forever."
He had never mentioned how he got that scar. Suddenly a thought occurred to the Water Tribe girl that almost made her gasp in horror. Did his father do this to him?
She gazed at the livid scar that covered nearly half the angry Fire Prince's face. Then Appa snorted and Momo shrieked. Everyone went still and crouched warily ready to spring. They heard the rustling of the tree cranches in the wind and a soft whirling, ringing noise that was barely audible.
"Look out!" cried Aang. The airbender threw himself at Katara knocking her to the ground just as...something...whizzed out of the forest and spun through the space Katara occupied seconds before. Zuko leapt out of the way as the thing spun around and flew back toward him.
It barely missed his head as it sped over the Fire Prince and to the waiting hand of the veiled figure in black who had suddenly appeared as though out of thin air.
- - -
Yuan regarded her targets coolly, as she raised her giant shuriken star over her head for another throw, and her long dark hair fell back to rest between her shoulder blades. The rogue airbender was helping the Water Tribe girl to her feet. Both were looking at her with curiosity and apprehension. Then her slate eyes fell on the firebender who had drawn his twin swords, poised and ready for attack.
She decided it would be a shame to disappoint him. She had sworn that they would die and Yuan Keeper of the Sacred Seal and Guardian of Shang-wēifēng never went back on her word.
Whoo-hoo! OC's galore and some good old fashioned Aangst! I've read the speculation on the General's identity from Ch 6. I'm sorry to inform you that Long Feng did indeed kill Jet and he won't appear in my fic except for flashbacks. Originally, I intended the General to be the leader of the Omashu Resistence, but he didn't seem the type who would put his faith in kids. So after racking my brains I said "You know what? Let's take this into a completely different angle" and Flopsie was the result. Time and reviews will tell if I had chosen poorly. So what do you all think of the new Freedom Fighters? Love 'em? Hate 'em? I gotta know! Also Yuan, the airbending ninja finally makes a scene. Will Aang and the others survive this encounter? Will the FF escape the Dai Li? And can the mysterious Grizzly be who we all think he is? (Um...duh!) Tune in for Yuan same bad-ass time! Same bad-ass channel!