The White Lotus War

Chapter 2: A Diamond Hidden In Dirt

"I don't believe this!" a woman cried out from a glorious looking mansion. Suddenly, the doors flew open and a young girl in a maid outfit was practically thrown out from the mansion and she fell to the ground hard. Another woman dressed in expensive-looking furs and high heels came out from the house and stared down at the maid with anger in her eyes.

"How many times have I told you not to earth bend while on the job? I thought I made it perfectly clear last time about how I despise it when you mess with my garden! I have to constantly make sure that the flowers stay as beautiful as I remembered them yesterday and the day before that!"

The maid mumbled, "Well for starters, you have your gardeners work on your garden while you lounge around all day."

"Did you say something, dirt?"

The maid clenched her teeth. She absolutely hated it when she called her that. Still, she just sat there and took it saying, "Nothing. I'm sorry Midori."

"Don't you dare call me by my first name! I absolutely hate it when you call me that! Now tend to Ma Gui and stay out of trouble!" That was the last thing she said before she went back inside her mansion and slammed the doors.

The maid silently replied, "Well at least I didn't call you dirt."

The maid was a lovely seventeen-year-old woman with short black hair and shining hazel eyes. She was strong and had a gorgeous physique, though almost none of it showed through her bulky earth-kingdom style maid uniform.

She absolutely hated being stuck as someone else's cleaning lady. She wanted so badly just to throw a boulder at her and squish her like the annoying bug she was. Still, she managed to keep her cool and just reminded herself that even though Midori was a pain, she was the woman who kept a roof over her head ever since her parents died in that hit and run incident.

When she was only five years old, when not even two years managed to pass after her brother was sent to the Northern Water Tribe for extensive training, her parents told her that they were going out to buy groceries and that she would have to behave herself since they couldn't afford to pay someone to watch over her. What seemed to be just minutes later, a man dressed in a White Lotus uniform walked into the house and sat her down in a chair to talk to her about some bad news. Bad news, she still thought to herself, the understatement of the entire millennium. After about an hour of crying, the White Lotus member escorted her to a local orphanage where he promised that she would go to a nice and loving home. Then the rat-slug named Midori adopted her a few years later. Why did she adopt her? Apparently Midori and her husband were arguing about having a child, but she didn't want to actually take care of a helpless infant while he worked all day. So he managed to talk her into adopting, so she could raise a child instead of a crying baby. Though it seemed that Midori's idea of "raising" a kid meant having her become a maid in her own home.

Still, the young woman managed to brave a smile and continue on with her life. She entered the stables, which weren't too far from the mansion, and called out, "Ma Gui, it's time for lunch!"

Suddenly, a the graceful creature known as Ma Gui trotted toward the maid. Ma Gui was a horse-turtle, a horse with reptile skin and a shell on her back to function as a saddle. Ma Gui was a strong and friendly horse, at least towards the maid; Ma Gui didn't really like her actual owner, Midori, and she always did her best to try and knock Midori off her back.

While Ma Gui ate from her bucket of oats and dead flies, the maid heard someone call out her name from outside, "Hitomi!"

Hitomi raced outside to find her best friend leaning against her motorcycle. Hitomi smiled and called back, "Yuko!"

The eighteen-year-old Yuko was Hitomi's oldest, and only, friend while growing up. They lived together in the same orphanage until Midori adopted her. Yuko decided that she didn't want to leave her friend and possibly live far away from her, so she decided to abandon the orphanage so she could still see Hitomi every now and then. She was able to make money for food and an apartment by competing in fights. She was a very muscular woman and she had spent all her free time becoming stronger and practicing her own style of fighting with her handmade knuckle bracers. She first started fighting only women in the all-girl matches, but ever since she became the champion and everybody wanted to put up their strength against hers, she was allowed into the much more profitable all-men matches. She's been the champion for almost two years.

She was still very attractive with her red hair, which was just barely long enough to touch her muscular shoulders, and her chocolate brown eyes. She wore a sleeveless shirt that revealed her strong muscles, baggy brown pants that were tied to her waist by a black belt, and worn out brown hiking boots.

"So how've you been? Is Midori still treating you like a slave?" Yuko asked.

Hitomi shrugged and replied, "She's just being an annoying spider-roach."

"You know, you don't have to put up with her. I make enough cash for both us to live under the same roof."

Hitomi crossed her arms and smirked at her friend. They both knew that she didn't make enough money to support two people. Herself, yes, but fights in their town aren't that profitable; maybe in Ba Sing Se or Republic City, but definitely not here. Heck, the only way she got the motorcycle was because some moron lost it to her by gambling during a fight.

Yuko understood her friend's facial expression and made a suggestion, "You want to head into town and get some noodles for lunch? I'm starved; spent the whole day training for next week's fight."

"Sure! Sounds like fun." Hitomi was really hungry and she needed a break from Midori for a while. Besides, she loved to have an excuse to ride Ma Gui into town. Hitomi went back to the stables and came back out riding on Ma Gui's back. The two friends rode into town and stopped at their favorite noodle shop where they ordered plain white noodles. They weren't the tastiest of lunches, but they were cheap.

On one of the open chairs, Hitomi noticed a newspaper with the headline White Lotus Aids Water Tribe Medical Facilities. Reading the headline, she decided to turn it into a conversation; she was worried that if Yuko forced any more noodles down her throat without swallowing, she would choke to death.

"Hey Yuko," she began, "Have you noticed that the White Lotus have been very active these past few years?"

Yuko swallowed so she could better speak, but she continued to eat as she talked, "Yeah, they're the White Lotus; it's their job to help out the world."

"I know that, but for centuries they've been a very concealed group; they mostly focus on preventing wars, dealing with political stuff, and aiding the Avatar when he or she needs it. But lately they seem to be dealing with a lot more smaller stuff than before and stepping out into the public eye more and more often. Do you think that something's going on? I mean, it would take something pretty big for the White Lotus to be this active."

Yuko swallowed another mouth-full of noodles and replied with a smirk, "Listen conspiracy nut, I'm sure the White Lotus has whatever situation it's going through under control. Right now, our biggest dilemma is figuring out how to give these noodles more flavor without me going bankrupt."

Hitomi was about to laugh at her friend's comment, but noticed a man outside getting beaten up by two other men that were much larger than him. Hitomi pointed this out to Yuko and they both ran outside to meet the two men.

"Hey!" Hitomi cried out, "Leave him alone!"

The two men stopped kicking the man who had fallen to the ground and turned to face the two girls.

One of them smirked and said, "Beat it ladies. This creep owes me money; and I don't like to get burned on deals," he then opened his hand where a small ball of fire was formed, "So instead, I'm gunna burn him for good measure!"

Yuko chuckled and asked Hitomi, "Was that suppose to be a threat?"

Hitomi smirked and replied, "It sounded more like a bad attempt at a pun."

The fire bender got really mad and threw the fireball straight at Hitomi. Hitomi swiftly kicked the ground forming a giant rock that she punched straight at the fireball. The fireball wasn't strong enough to push back on it, so the rock slammed into the fire bender, shooting him two blocks away from the shop!

The other guy called out, "So you wanna fight? Fine by me!" The man kicked the ground and a giant rock flew out from the ground. The earth bender kicked the rock straight at Yuko. Yuko quickly reached into her pocket, equipped her knuckle bracers, and threw a punch at the rock, completely shattering it! The earth bender's jaw practically dropped at the sight of his giant rock getting vaporized by a punch from a teenage girl.

Yuko asked in a puppy dog voice, "What's the matter? Are you upset that I destroyed your big bad boulder with a swift punch?"

The fire bender rapidly ran back towards them, charging a bolt of lightning in his fingertips. He called out, "Now it's time to bring the heat! This time, you'll be in for a shock!" He shot his bolt of lightning straight at Hitomi, who first rolled her eyes at his pun. She crouched down and lifted her hands into the sky, causing the earth from underneath her shot her up into the air, dodging the lightning attack. She kicked the earth at the other earth bender who managed to catch it in his hands, but he got flown back pretty far.

The fire bender exclaimed, "Now you're really starting to steam me up!" He was preparing to form another lightning bolt, but then Yuko ran straight at him and punched him right in the jaw, sending him flying towards the earth bender and they both crashed into each other.

"Quit with the puns already!" Yuko shouted.

Hitomi and Yuko ran over to the man and they helped him up. The man appeared to be fine, apart from a few bruises, and he quickly explained that he gave them an incorrect amount of money after purchasing some groceries from his shop. He was going to pay them back, but they were too stubborn and boneheaded to listen.

Hitomi and Yuko walked over to the two benders, who lay defeated on the ground, and they stared down the two bullies. They shuddered at their feminine, but obviously formidable opponents.

The fire bender, fearing his life, stuttered, "C-Come on now ladies, w-we can work out this little misunderstanding. How about a hot date?"

Hitomi stomped on the ground and the earth sharply rose underneath the two benders, which shot them straight into the sky and over a bunch of small buildings before crashing back down somewhere far away.

"Man that was great!" Yuko announced with glee, "We have to do this more often."

The two girls headed toward the noodle shop where Hitomi untied Ma Gui from the post and Yuko started up her motorcycle.

"Hitomi," Yuko said, "You know we could probably run away to Republic City or somewhere we'll be able to make money from fights. It'd be better than staying here with you being Midori's slave and me just barely making my rent."

Hitomi looked at the ground and thought about what she said. True, they could run away to someplace where they could make better money by competing in fights in a bigger city. But that's not Hitomi wanted her life to be about. She wanted to become something greater than herself; something that people would talk about for years and years to come like General and Grand Lotus Iroh or Firelord Zuko. Or even like Avatar Aang or Korra or Roku.

The two friends said their goodbyes and made their way home. Hitomi put Ma Gui back in her stable while she heard Midori call her name from inside the house. Hitomi was about to open the door when she saw that a newspaper was resting in front of the door. She picked it up and read the headline, Avatar Whereabouts Unknown! She decided to read on, The White Lotus claims that after seventeen years of constantly searching, no trace of the Avatar has been found! The world panics at hearing that the world's defender may not arrive to help us if a crisis suddenly strikes! Has the reign of the Avatar come to an end? If so, then how? When? Why? And if not, then where is the Avatar? Who is the Avatar?

"Hitomi!" Midori screamed from inside the mansion, ceasing her from completing the article, though she gets the point the author is trying to get across.

"Oh well," Hitomi said as she laid the paper back on the doorstep and entered the house, "The Avatar has nothing to do with me."

And that makes two chapters! I hope you're enjoying the story so far and I'm going to keep at it until I've transformed this thing into an epic like no other! Until next time!