The Price of Freedom
Commander Oni expected to have to hunt the fugitives down, so he was pleasantly surprised when four of them dropped right out of the sky onto his head.
Rather, they were aiming for his head, but Oni saw their shadows quickly drawing near him and reflexively sprung back.
When the terrorists had first fled, Oni put his helmet on and rallied as many Firebender Scouts as he could to pursue them. Now that he had flushed them out, there was no hiding. He could draw a line on a map between their last known position and the section of the forest that Commander Fei's previous investigations had narrowed down as the general location of the terrorist base, and now it was a simple matter of spreading Firebenders out and dropping the metaphorical net.
Perhaps that was why some of the troublemakers had turned around to fight again. They knew the futility and wanted to die while still struggling to live. Oni appreciated that for two reasons: it implied a certain personal strength he respected, and it would also make killing them that much more exquisite.
Oni most enjoyed it when his victims thrashed and writhed in their final moments.
The oldest boy, the tenacious one with the bush of hair and the hook swords, was attacking in the next instant, using the alternating-arm style that allowed for a constant flurry of strikes. As much as he would have liked to set the boy on fire right then and there, Oni was forced on the defensive, and then, before he realized what was going on, one of the sword strikes dipped lower than expected, the hook of the blade catching the Firebender's armored ankle and yanking.
Oni's feet flew up. The rest of him fell hard to the ground. The blade of the second sword quickly followed the same plummeting path as the Firebender's head.
Only a quick jerk brought Oni's helmet in line to deflect the blade, but it still hit hard enough to ring the metal around Oni's skull. Good thing the commander wasn't traveling alone; around ten Firbender Scouts chose that excellent moment to attack the rebel. They didn't actually hit him with their fireballs, but that was okay.
Oni had demonstrated his superiority when he revealed the trap and the bombing of the forest. He was looking forward to killing the leader himself, now.
Then they would all die.
Maybe it was because The Duke always had to plan out all his attacks against the much larger and more numerous foes, but he never got so absorbed in a battle that he didn't keep his head. Maybe that was why he wasn't as good a fighter as Jet. (Well, that, and Jet was a lot older than him, but still.) Sometimes, though, his ability to think really helped him out.
While Jet, Sneers, and Pipsqueak all laid into Oni's Firebenders with all their fury, The Duke had hidden himself after the initial attack. The Firebenders weren't going out of their way to light the forest around them on fire this time, so The Duke was able to crouch in the brush and watch as the enemy put all their futile focus on fighting the bigger Freedom Fighters. When he thought he saw a good opening, he would leap out at one of the soldiers, trip them with his staff, and them give the best pummeling he was capable of handing out.
While he was hiding, waiting for one of those fun moments, a thought occurred to him. What had happened to the cart with the barrels that had lured the Freedom Fighters into this trap?
Maybe it was just a fake, something to get Jet to come out and fight. But what if it wasn't?
The Duke wondered if he should tell someone. The others looked pretty busy, trying not to die.
Longshot and Smellerbee were running like the wind, and it still wasn't fast enough.
They stuck to the treetops, easier to navigate than the forest floor, at least for anyone used to traveling across the branches. Both Freedom Fighters were light and agile enough to really go at a run, leaping and landing again and again without stopping. Longshot even employed a trick he usually kept reserved for safer, more leisurely conditions; shooting rope-tied arrows to create makeshift swing points that would carry him and Smellerbee over gaps and up inclines. He usually stood still for those kind of shots and aimed carefully.
Now, he was shooting as he ran, and one time even as he was jumping midair.
Longshot wasn't a show-off, but he would have liked to see Smellerbee's reaction to that move. He was too busy to look at her, and she was too focused to do anything but take advantage of his skill.
They still weren't fast enough. They could hear the crashes as the flaming boulders landed ahead of them in the forest. They probably shouldn't have been able to tell, but Longshot almost thought he could maybe place the distance as right around where the Freedom Fighters' treehouse homes were.
Then the noise was interrupted by the unmistakable roar of Firebending.
The two Freedom Fighters didn't even have to work to dodge. They were moving fast enough that a slight twitch of their bodies let their momentum carry them in diverging tumbles. While that wasn't always a good idea in a tree, they had more than enough practice at it. Longshot had been with Jet for years, living in the treehouse base, and learning the ways of walking the canopy.
Smellerbee had been there even longer than him.
He caught her eye, and nodded forward. She had to keep going.
Smellerbee was eager to get moving again, dancing from foot to foot, but she didn't take off just yet. "Not without you. Jet said we should get them out together."
Longshot shook his head, looked purposefully down at where the Firebending had come from, and drew an arrow. The others might have been keeping the main force occupied, but apparently there were more enemies spread throughout the forest.
"All right," Smellerbee grumbled, "but you better catch up. I'm not leaving this forest unless you're right there beside me."
Longshot smiled at her, and then she was gone.
They could have tried outrunning the Firebenders, but why risk further delays if they couldn't shake these very effective new soldier types? Longshot had to take care of them.
He had to keep Smellerbee safe.
So he stepped off his branch and dropped like a rock. The rushing air was moving a little too fast for him to do his normal breathing, slow and in time with his archery, but that didn't keep Longshot from doing what he did best. Certainly, he had worked to refine his skill with the bow and arrow, to learn the good habits of the best marksmen, but that wasn't all there was to his ability. He also happened to be born with a real affinity for archery. It was almost freakish. So as he fell, he fired two arrows at a time, aiming for any color that didn't look like it belonged, any movement that could have been a person moving. He didn't have the luxury of using minimal force, of making sure he was aiming at a human and not a hog monkey.
He just kept shooting.
When the ground came dangerously close, Longshot fired one last arrow, one of those with a rope tied to it. As soon as it had buried itself in a thick tree trunk, he held on to the cord and let it turn his fall into a swinging, skidding arc along the ground.
Longshot stood up, straightened his hat, and looked around.
He saw arrows, and Firebenders, but no movement at all.
Another grappling arrow brought him back up to the treetops. Soon he was back on the path home.
He and Smellerbee had to go save the surviving orphans, if there were any. Who knew how long Jet and the others would last? And it hadn't escaped Longshot's notice that all the Freedom Fighters' scouts who had been sent out to keep a watch on Oni's army had both failed in their job and not been seen since the start of the attack.
Very little escaped Longshot's notice at all.
It just wouldn't end, and now the forest was on fire around them again.
Pipsqueak had originally landed like a bomb amidst a group of Firebenders, his strength exploding in a flurry of slaps and poundings that knocked the whole group off their feet. As a big guy, Pipsqueak knew that when it came to tempting targets, he was a like a traveling silk merchant who was too cheap to hire any guards, so no sooner were his targets down than he was hightailing it out of there. Of course, that same size was also very useful resource. Although his initial retreating dash wasn't very quick, he could use his strong arms to pull himself back up into the tree branches with the speed and force of a primate. Fireballs chased him into the leafy sky, but Pipsqueak knew how to vary his path, and use the gigantic trees to obscure his own large frame.
Jet had taught him how to strike and fade like that.
Back before Pipsqueak had found the Freedom Fighters, he had a real home, a quiet little village out in the middle of nowhere. No settlement, though, was too small for the Fire Nation. The locals put together a militia, and even though he was somewhat young for it, Pipsqueak's size and strength made him a natural recruit. Muscles that had been honed by pulling carts and hauling feed on the farms were taught how to wield a weapon. He was to be a battering ram against the enemy's lines, drawing and dealing punishment like a machine.
It hadn't made a difference. The Fire Army had advanced faster than anticipated, and a commando squad struck in the night before anyone even knew the enemy had arrived. The entire militia was captured without a fight. The whole population of the village was arrested and sent to work in the mines.
Pipsqueak had lasted a week digging up coal. After a week of watching the suffering of everyone he cared for, he found the strength to break his chains and run.
By the time he found Jet, there was no one left to save. The main Earth Kingdom forces had struck at the mine while Pipsqueak was gone, and "denied the asset" to the Fire Nation. Pipsqueak couldn't even find out if any of the prisoners had been freed.
It was Jet's tactics that Pipsqueak used now. He stayed in the tree tops, where the air was so hot that it almost hurt to breath, and the leaves of the trees hid him with the Fire Nation's own colors. They sent fireballs up where they thought Pipsqueak was, and in turn he sent back flaming chunks of wood that weighed as much as an armored Firebender. Pipsqueak had been playing this game for a while now, abandoning a tree only when its burning became too much to handle, and he had completely lost track of time. Sometimes, fighting seemed to last longer than it really did, but this round was easily the longest he had ever kept fighting in one stretch. Jet had led him, Sneers, and The Duke back to keep the Firebenders from chasing Longshot and Smellerbee, but he hadn't discussed when it would be safe to break away again.
Finally, the fireballs had petered out to a mere handful, and Pipsqueak decided that it was time to finish this. Taking his club up again, the big Freedom Fighter dropped to the ground with enough force to give it a bit of a shake, and closed the distance to the enemy. He dodged around fireballs, and stayed close to the enemy soldiers so that their fellows couldn't attack without risking burning them, too. He hit as hard as he could, making sure that the enemy wouldn't be getting back up anytime soon.
One final swing of his club scattered the last pair of Firebenders, temporarily clearing this patch of forest of conscious opponents, and then his focus was broken by the shout of one of his friends.
"Pipsqueak! I'm climbing up!"
The big Freedom Fighter felt a little body pull its way up his clothes to perch itself on one of his shoulders. He looked up at The Duke. "What's up, buddy?"
"I think we need to go find that cart with the barrels."
It took Pipsqueak a second to remember what the kid was talking about. "The thing that led us into this trap? Why?"
The Duke pushed his helmet up a little, to reveal a face tight with worry. "What if it wasn't just bait?"
Pipsqueak would be the first to admit that he was a slow thinker, but that didn't mean he was stupid at all. Now that The Duke had shown him the path, it wasn't hard to follow it to all kinds of unpleasant imaginations. "All right, how do we find it?"
"It was in the dry riverbed, remember? We can follow that."
"But," Pipsqueak said, "what about Jet and Sneers? We can't just leave them."
The Duke's jaw dropped. He was a real smart kid, but that apparently hadn't occurred to him, yet.
"Go," said a husky voice.
Pipsqueak turned to see Sneers behind him. The quiet Freedom Fighter's own clothes and armor sported quite a few new black spots, but he himself looked uninjured. "You sure? What about Jet?"
Sneers glanced over to where Jet had disappeared deeper into the forest, chasing that Commander Oni and his personal guard. "I'll help him. If The Duke is right, this is more important than killing Firebenders."
The Duke leaned forward on Pipsqueak's shoulder to reach for Sneers. "Be okay."
Sneers held up his own hands for The Duke to clasp, and nodded. He said, "I promise, Jet and I will look out for each other. It's what Freedom Fighters do. Now you have to look out for us."
"Which way?" Pipsqueak asked.
The Duke pointed, and the big Freedom Fighter took off in a run, his little buddy holding onto his shoulder.
Smellerbee arrived to find the Freedom Fighters' base in flames. It was also in pieces, as though it had taken a direct hit. The pieces were recognizable, so it probably hadn't taken more than one.
Probably.
But she couldn't see anyone in the smoke and fire.
The whole base had been built with the main platform, and Jet's hut, as the central piece, constructed amidst the branches of the oldest and widest tree. It was large enough to accommodate other homes and hideaways as well, but as time passed and more kids joined the Freedom Fighters, they had expanded to the thinner trees around them, sometimes building platforms to connect two trunks. Ropes for climbing, swinging, and sliding had made navigating possible from differing heights, and wobbly bridges were used to create long thoroughfares over wide empty spaces.
Now, it was all ruined. The main tree was still standing, but its various huts were all on fire. Its platforms, treated so that cooking accidents weren't a major hazard, were still unburned, but the ropes and bridges that spun out from them were gone or ripped in half. Some of the smaller trees on the periphery were broken, others still standing, for now, but burning brightly. The brush all down below was completely aflame, issuing black smoke that rose to obscure the whole treehouse village.
It was a good thing Longshot wasn't here for this. He was a great person, reliable, and the best listener ever, but he was kind of a softie. He wouldn't deal well with the worst of the ways this could go. Smellerbee stood on the main platform, just beside Jet's burning hut, and shouted, "Is anyone still alive?"
Weak cries answered her.
She headed towards the closest ones, coming from where the cooking firepit was supposed to be. Now, it was a pile of stone and wood. The pit itself was completely buried beneath the shelving and stacked supplies that were kept around it. Somehow, a slab of stone that served as part of the cooking pit's foundation had landed on top of the mess, and Smellerbee couldn't help but wonder how badly things had been shaking for such a heavy object to be tossed in the air while everything else fell around it.
Of course, Smellerbee was a thin, fairly small girl who couldn't hope to lift a stone like that, but she didn't hesitate or worry about it. She had other options.
Smellerbee drew her largest sword from the sheath on her back. Like most of the Freedom Fighters' equipment, it had been stolen from the Fire Nation, and, as such, it had a special capability that Smellerbee didn't often get to use. The sword was a stonebreaker, specially designed not just to stab and cut people, but to smash and chop through weaker rocks, and resist shattering when struck by the strongest stones. The slab from the cooking pit had always looked pretty solid, but it had just been bounced around like a rice wafer in a stolen picnic basket. Smellerbee picked out a spot that looked like it was supporting too much weight, and brought her sword down in a two-handed swing.
Several swings later, the slab was cracked in half, and Smellerbee's sword was none the worse for wear.
"Come on," she said as she began digging at the pile of broken wood pieces. "Whoever's under there, I'm getting you out."
Sparkrocks was mostly aware of the smell of smoke and the occasional large crash somewhere in the nearby forest, but she slowly began to discern something else- the sound of a friendly voice. Pieces of wood and stone and clay shifted above her, and gloved hands snaked around to grab her by the armpits and pull.
Sparkrocks emerged from the ruins of the cooking area. She looked into a face that was smudged with ash and dirt, with three stripes of red war paint on each cheek. "Smellerbee!"
The Freedom Fighter nodded, and stared into the younger girl's eyes. "Are you okay? Anything hurting? If you can stand, we really need you to. This whole place is a complete hazard now."
Now that she mentioned it, Sparkrocks became aware of plenty of bruises and scrapes, starting at her head and working down to the very tips of her toes, but nothing that screamed of real owchies.
Then the memories hit. "Wait! We were inside when a big boom came down right outside the treehouse! Me and Hibachi were cooking when the place shook apart on us! Did he-"
"I found him," Smellerbee cut in. She patted Sparkrocks's shoulders. "We have to focus on the people we know we can save."
It took Sparkrocks a second to understand what wasn't said. She looked back at the rubble she had just been dragged out of, and saw a battered rice hat lying at its edge, one chosen for its resemblance to the hat Longshot always wore.
"Come on," Smellerbee said softly, "I need your help to find more people. We all have to leave the base. Soon as possible."
If direct combat couldn't lead to Oni's defeat, then Jet was more than willing to cheat.
Between the skills of the Commander himself and the help of his so-called elite Firebender Scouts, Jet hadn't been able to bring a satisfying end to the guy despite all his best efforts. So he had taken to the trees, climbing one of the trunks with stabs of his hook swords' spiked handles faster than he ever had before, dodging fireballs long enough to disappear into the leaves.
So far, swooping down on Oni had failed twice. For the third and hopefully final attempt, Jet was going to mix things up a little.
He stepped out from his hiding place, and sure enough the fireballs were back in the air quick enough. Jet dodged casually, waiting for the right-
Ah, there it was.
One of the fireballs struck the long branch Jet had been standing on right where it grew out from the trunk. Jet hadn't been idle while he was hiding. He had been sawing diligently at that branch with his swords (they were going to need a lot of extra care after this battle), stopping just short of cutting the thing off completely. The fireball had finished the job.
The burning branch began to plummet, but Jet wasn't with it. He jumped just before it began its fall, hooked a sword at the thick branch just above his head, and hung on for dear life.
The long, burning branch crashed into even more branches as it fell, knocking them loose and setting fire to them as well.
A lot of burning wood wound up dropping on the heads of all the Firebenders who had been looking to cook Jet.
Now the Freedom Fighter let himself drop, swords ready. He stepped carefully towards the burning rubble, looking to verify that a set of commander's armor was amidst the blaze, preferably twisting in agony.
He barely heard the footsteps in time.
Jet knew an attack was coming in the space of an instant, and did his best to twist out of the way, but bodies move so much slower than thought, and he watched with drawn out dread as Commander Oni came flying towards him in flaming jump kick.
The blow landed on his hip, hard enough to elicit a cry of pain from Jet, hot enough to be felt even through the scavenged armor he wore on that side. That armor probably saved him from a horrible burn scar. Instead, it hurt like crazy and sent Jet stumbling at something approaching a respectable run. He came to halt when he crashed chest-first into a tree, and the breath exploded out of his lungs and wouldn't come back. The air was too hot, too smoky, to obey his frantic gasps.
Oni was approaching from behind. Jet willed himself to get up, but his body just wouldn't obey without the necessary air.
The Firebender commander didn't even bother summoning a flame. He drew an armored foot back for what looked like a truly impressive kick-
Sneers tackled the man the floor and slammed his palm into Oni's face.
They found the cart, empty, right near the geysers.
Pipsqueak and The Duke crouched in the bushes beside the geyser-pocked slope, watching as Fire Nation soldiers carried barrels to each of the steaming vents. "Hey, The Duke, what are they doing?"
The smaller boy shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe they want to use the geysers to launch the barrels like a catapult?"
Pipsqueak was silent while he pictured that. "Would that work?"
"I really don't think so."
"I say we stop 'em, anyway," Pipsqueak whispered.
"Okay."
With surprise on their side, they beat the soldiers in under a minute. Granted, there were only six of them, and Pipsqueak was in that special zone of hurt where the fatigue and pain had lasted long enough to make him stronger and angrier.
"What's going on here?" the big Freedom Fighter had bellowed at the last conscious soldier. He was holding the man up by his chest armor, feet dangling a few inches above the ground.
"The R- Rice Counter… er, I mean, Lieutenant Gokoku… he or- ordered us to b- bomb this place."
Pipsqueak glared at the man. "What."
The soldier nodded convulsively. "He wa- wanted us to place the b- barrels of blasting j- jelly in the geysers and- and set them off. He w- wanted an earthquake. To- to keep any of your r- rebels from escaping the forest. Oni thought it c-couldn't hurt to try."
Pipsqueak looked down at his companion. "Would that work?"
The Duke twisted his face into a grimace. "I really don't think so. We get little shakes around these geysers all the time anyway. It's just trapped gases that make them shoot water. Blowing them up would just wreck this place, not earthquake the whole forest."
Pipsqueak looked back up at the soldier. "That's the dumbest idea I've ever heard." Then he knocked the man unconscious with one whack. "All right, The Duke. What do we do with our new blasting jelly?"
The Duke thought about it, and then his face lit up at the idea that came to him. "Something really good. But you're gonna have to run again. A lot of running."
TO BE CONTINUED