The sun emerged, burning the sky blood red. The wind was icy, fiendish. Cathy rubbed her hands together in an attempt to heat them. Feeling silly, she remembered she was a Firebender, and ignited her hands in a controlled flame. Her breath was heavy, she felt ridiculous in her uniform: black sandals and tights, a black robe with a red outline adorned with the symbol of a flame. The symbol of the Fire Nation. Since learning of her heritage, she had been told once the war was over she would return to the Fire Nation as the supreme leader; the Fire Lord. She didn't feel like she deserved such a role. They had requested that she scrape her hair back into a ponytail, but she kept it long; flowing down her neck and over her shoulder pads, resting on her chest. They wouldn't take that from her.
The attack team was small, and they were to be precise. There were three of them; Lea, Cathy, and Master Manda. They had hoped for a fourth, but Will had elected to stay behind and aid the refugee movement. Cathy still couldn't help but respect him for that. There was usually a fuss around the entrance to the mine shaft when missions were set into motion, however this time there was just silence. Nobody wanted to say anything, nobody needed to. They all knew the weight that their subsequent actions carried.
Shortly after, they were joined by Master Ray, and she brought her voice with her.
"Remember, its very important that you break into the prison and get out in the time that you've got. If you linger, the plan will fall apart." She warned, the team nodded solemnly. "Good luck."
Manda stepped into the drivers seat of the white van whilst Lea opened the doors in the back. "Ladies first." He expressed sarcastically, bowing hyperbolically and waving his hand from his front to face the inside of the van.
"Such the gentleman." Cathy sniped from behind an unenthusiastic smile and a raised eyebrow. She expunged the flames from her hands and stepped up into the van. She sat herself down on the cold metal flooring and sighed at the discomfort. 'A cushion wouldn't kill anyone' she thought to herself. There was a clank as the metals on the floor and on Lea's boot sole touched. He set across from Cathy, looking into her eyes briefly before focusing on other things. Any things. Master Ray shut the compartment and light was extinguished, save from a few beams squeezing through the gaps at the bottom of the door. The engine roared into life, the van pushed forward and both benders were jerked to their left. Lea banged his head on the side. Cathy laughed, he shot her a venomous look and she tried to douse her smile by folding her lips. It didn't work.
The journey was awkward. Lea and Cathy had not spent an awful lot of time together, and what little they did they shared with Will who seemed to bridge the gap. Cathy decided to try and break the ice.
"Why is it so important that we do this prison break today?" She uttered, finding no other conversations in her head.
"Today is the day that Sozin's comet passes through our atmosphere. It increases the power of fire bending massively, it becomes superior to every other style of bending." He laughed slightly and looked at Cathy, in the faint light she could make out that his eyes had narrowed and a slight smile had emerged. He leaned forward as if telling a secret, and spoke softly. "Lord Ozai, one of your ancestors, once described it as providing 'The power of a thousand suns'". Cathy drew a cigarette packet from her bra. She pulled one out and returned the packet to its hiding place, then lit it with a flame from her finger.
"Fuck me." She spoke whilst breathing out smoke. "Just how much more powerful does it make fire bending?"
"Let me put it this way. At the end of the hundred year war, moments before Ozai was defeated by Aang, he alone burned a section of the Earth Kingdom to the ground." Cathy laughed, blowing smoke through her nose.
"Well, lets get this prison break under way then shall we."
The van came to a halt seconds before the light seeping into the van turned red. "Let's begin." Lea barked, with a focused look on his face. He kicked the doors open and jumped out. Cathy followed him, and Manda exited the driver's seat last. The group turned their gaze to the sky, which was now almost unbearably bright. A white sphere was gliding slowly on the skyline, trailed by an unimaginably long tail of fire.
The team was stood on a hill, heavily covered by flora: the perfect vantage point. How Master Manda had managed to drive them up there exactly Cathy didn't know. They crouched and observed the prison from their point, taking a moment to absorb the construction before them. Extremely high walls made of concrete segregated the prisoners from the outside world, and several searchlights were aimed at the sky and the area around it. The lights were greatly overpowered now by Sozin's comet. Manda was the first to rise, signalling the other two that it was time to move. Quickly and elegantly they descended down the hill, down the scree and into the coverage surrounding the prison. The strike team managed to get to the wall without interference.
"Things are about to get ugly. Be ready!" Lea said, before raising his leg and kicking the stone wall directly. A rectangular section fell inwards towards the prison, kicking up a dust storm and reverberating a penetrating crashing sound. The three leapt forward, catching the guards off balance. Lea launched two wires from his suit, wrapping them around two guards and slamming them together. They dropped onto the ground unconscious.
Cathy rolled forward and punched forward a fireball: it's size overwhelmed her; a projectile the size of a small house rocketed forward, blasting a group of guards through the air and slamming them into the walls on the opposite side. Two guards ran towards the prison door, but they were stopped dead in their tracks as an arc of lightning jumped from one to the other. Just enough to knock them out, but not kill them. Manda's control of her lightning, even when enhanced by the comet, was astounding. Lea tore the steel gate in twine and allowed the two women to pass through before jumping through himself.
"From here, I'll go to the central control room alone. I'll disable the locks on the cell block containing Master Kaatje, you two make for there and get her out. And remember, she's with her sister who is heavily pregnant, be patient." Lea nodded to them, and ran off to his left and up a flight of stairs. Sounds of gunshots echoed throughout the hall, followed by the cries of incapacitated soldiers. Cathy and Manda charged straight forward down the hall, bursting through steel shutters with enhanced fire bending.
As they exploded through the blast door to the prison blick, a formation of soldiers arranged up in front of them; five knelt down and five stood behind them. All were wielding assault rifles. "Put your hands in the air and don't move, or else we'll shoot."
"As you wish." Cathy uttered cockily. She raised her hands, holding them above her for a few brief seconds before bringing them down in a cross before her; flames burst forward before her, filling the volume of the corridor and erupting out onto the soldiers. They screamed and yelled as their clothes singed and their flesh burned. They were driven backwards, slamming and rolling into the ground.
"Cathy, a bit of control please." Manda scalded as she stepped forward. Several melted bullets steamed on the floor, they'd tried to fire shots. To no avail. "Come on, Lea should be just about finished clearing up the control room." Right as she finished her sentence, a resounding clicking bounced throughout the prison ward as doors unlocked. Prisoners cheered and raced out to freedom; several benders blasting the roof with fire, earth and air. The two fire benders pushed against the crowd, checking the empty cells for signs of Kaatje and her pregnant sister.
Hope diminished as each cell seemed emptier than the last before they discovered her in the lest cell in the ward. Kaatje was cradling her sister, who seemed to be in pain. Manda immediately ran to her aid with Cathy not far behind. "You have to get to your feet, we need to get you out of here. Pull yourself together Kinnara!" Manda encouraged, helping the pregnant woman to her feet with the aid of her sister. The rioting seemed to be far in the distance now, gunshots and elements slung could be heard in the background. The two older women carried Kinnara, while Cathy walked slowly behind them.
"Well this is touching. But I'm afraid you're not going anywhere." Cathy pivoted to see Captain Flynn. She gritted her teeth before launching a huge stream of flame against their opposer. Cathy was having no bullshit today.
"Go! I'll meet you back at the vantage point!" Manda nodded and proceeded to go for the door at the end of the corridor, Kinnara's arms draped around the shoulders of herself and Kaatje.
"Where do you think you're going?" Flynn spat angrily as she leapt forward and dragged a sheet of air from behind her back. She pushed it towards the escaping trio, Cathy intercepted it with a wall of flame. The harsh flames danced and disappated as the air brushed over it. "I see. Very well then, if that's how you want to play it. I'll have to move you." The Captain jumped shallowly into the air and slowly span around on her descent; the air around her whipped up then cascaded outwards down the corridor from every direction. The Firebender was pushed back a few inches from the initial buffet of the wind, but managed to pivot on her back foot and kick the other in front of her; an arc of fire was formed from her leg and ejected towards Flynn who gracefully dodged it by bending backwards into a crab-shape and kicking herself back to her feet.
Fire and air clashed repeatedly, both benders fighting desperately to hold their ground. Neither had managed to land a hit on the other; the walls were scorched by flame and the ceiling was scarred by wind. In a last ditch attempt, Cathy inhaled deeply and exhaled violently. Like a dragon, white-hot flamed burst from her mouth and filled the entire volume of the corridor. The Fire Nation Royal controlled these flames, circling them around the defending Commander rapidly.
Flynn wrapped herself in a sphere of wind, rapidly cycling the currents and trying to prevent the fire from breaking her. The flames burned harder and the pressure increased, beads of sweat erupted from the Captain's skin as the sphere shrank and the impossibly hot flames grew ever closer to her face. She had not wanted to reveal this, but she had no choice. The rotation ceased, quicker than the blink of an eye Flynn clapped her hand and pushed them in front of her. She split her hands and threw them to her sides; blue flames burst from her body and forced the offending fire upwards and outwards. Both fires, white and blue, vanished into smoke.
The intense heat from the flames had melted the iron prison cell bars into an orange liquid, dripping from the ceiling into accumulating puddles on the ground. Both women stood exhausted, panting, and clawing from breath. At this rate the heat exposure would kill them both before they did. Footsteps echoed throughout the hall from behind Cathy, the General of the Republic City army burst through the door as she turned to get a better look, two soldiers either side of him and three behind him. Each wielding assault rifles. She had been flanked. This was it.
Or so she thought. Without warning Flynn stepped forward and expelled a bolt of lightning that arced around Cathy and pierced the General's chest. From there it bounced from soldier to soldier, their screams fighting to be heard over the immense thunderclap that resonated inside the prison with a roar. The girl was awe struck, she could not absorb what had just happened. Flynn collected a compressed ball of air in her hands and threw it with vigor at the wall behind her. The screech was almost unbearable as it tore through the thick metal wall. Movement stopped, the sphere exploded, and a gargantuan hole was ripped open in the wall. Light from the comet flooded the coridor with an orange/red hue.
The commander, with her back turned and a long sillhouette cast beneath and behind, turned her head slightly. "I have not done you a kindness." she uttered calmly. Too calmly. "That man has been in my way for a very long time, and I promised him that I would take his life and his badge. Because you provided me with the distraction I needed to get his attention I will allow you to escape. But know this," Her tone deepened and slowed, eyes narrow and manor threatening. "You will still die by my hand."
As Cathy ran for the fissure in the wall, Flynn punched the air behind her and propelled her out into the open air. The force from the gale was enough to project her right over the wall, and she steadied her landing by pushing two jets of flame from her palms to the floor. She landed into a dodge roll and ran towards the meeting point with what little energy she had left. As she arrived at the van, she was immediately bear-hugged by Manda, scalded for being so rash, and forced into the passanger seat as the Firebending Master switched the ignition and hit the peddle.
"The others are safe in the back. You'd better get some sleep, you've done better than I ever could have imagined. A true firebending Master." Manda awarded, a small smile peeking from the corners of her mouth.
"Is Lea in the back too?"
No response.
Dripping metal cast a heat-haze in the utterly obliterated corridor. The commander steadily pushed herself towards the bodies of the General and his elite men. Not that elite, she thought to herself. "I told you I would destroy you." were the last words she whispered into his ear before more soldiers arrived. Flynn feigned injury and told them Cathy had escaped out of the hole. A final figure emerged in front of the Commander. This one commanded her to her feet, commended her on her attempts to prevent the prison break and save the General's life.
This final figure, donned entirely in black and hidden behind a mask, promoted her to General.
Checkmate.
