42
Hoshiko looked up in the sky as she saw it begin to darken and change to an orange hue as the comet came into the sky. It looked as though the comet was the sun, and it was falling from the sky to crash into earth. Clouds around the comet separated, as if the comet were a flame that they could not touch for risk of being burned. The light from the sun no longer seemed to matter as the world lit up in a red light from the comet. Kotaro noticed her, and looked up at the comet as well.
"It's here." He said simply, Hoshiko nodded.
"It's… almost beautiful." She said, she looked over at him, "You know, in a world-dooming kind of way."
"Sometimes the most dangerous of threats can be the most beautiful to watch." Jeong Jeong said wisely.
Hoshiko looked ahead of them, seeing the wall of Ba-Sing-Se in the distance. She turned to Kotaro, "Hey, do you have a telescope or something?" He shook his head. One of the nearby masters overheard her and offered theirs. She took it and looked off into the distance to see there were almost no soldiers on the wall, "I don't see any guards."
"They are preparing for Ozai's arrival." Iroh said, "They are evacuating the city before Ozai comes to burn it down."
"Did Zuko tell you his plan?" Kotaro asked as he took the telescope from Hoshiko to see the same thing she had.
"Yes," Iroh shook his head, "To think my brother would think such things…" He sighed.
"It's hard to believe he's your brother." Hoshiko said. Iroh said nothing as the members of the White Lotus stopped, standing on a large area of elevated land that stood a mile outside the wall's limits.
"Ba-Sing-Se, the Order of the White Lotus is here." Bumi said solemnly as he looked at the walls.
"Here to set you free." Pakku said.
Iroh closed his eyes as he stepped out in front of them, concentrating. "Only once in a hundred years can a fire bender experience this kind of power." He took in a deep breath, flames rising up around the land he and the others stood on. When he released the breath, the flames went down. He took in another breath, the flames rising higher than before, and released it again. He did this a few more times until the fire was well concentrated, and Hoshiko worried that he might burn them, until he let out a war cry and shot the flames forward, blasting through the wall of the city, creating an opening. Bumi used his earth bending to move the land beneath them to help get them closer to the walls of the city without wasting too much of their energy. As they approached, it seemed the walls were not completely bare of fire benders as two of them blasted fire balls at them. Iroh easily blocked them before they had a chance to hit them.
Bumi turned to Hoshiko and Kotaro with a crazed grin, "Ready for take-off, kiddies?"
"Take-off?" Kotaro repeated confusedly.
Before they had a chance to question the earth bender further, he used earth bending to shoot them, as well as the other masters up into the air, heading straight for the wall. Hoshiko's limbs flailed about in her sudden flight, but she managed to land safely on the wall. Kotaro's trip was about the same, only he landed safely on top of Hoshiko, pushing them both to the floor of the wall.
"Ow…" Hoshiko groaned. Pakku and Pian-Dao landed just a few yards from them. They watched in awe as Pakku bent up a huge wave of water, from where they didn't know, and send it crashing down to the soldier's below, freezing it around their feet. Pian-Dao slid down the ice and used his sword skills to disarm the stuck soldiers. Pakku followed him down. He saw that there was a Fire Nation tank not too far from them, and was preparing to fire. He unfroze the ice and created an ice shield to block the fire blast, but it wasn't strong enough, and shattered from the intense heat, but he was unharmed. A second blast came, but it was blocked by a fifty-foot wall of roaring fire. Hoshiko and Kotaro looked up to see Jeong Jeong hovering in the air, a strong, but small, stream of fire propelling him to remain in the air as he attacked. From above, he could see all the tanks that had gathered to them in response to the attack. Two more tanks fired at him, and he blocked it with another gigantic wall of flame and managed to push them back with it, creating a huge pile of metal tanks.
"Whoa…" The couple breathed in unison upon seeing the incredible display.
"I guess there's a reason they call them 'Grand Masters'." Kotaro said.
"I'm feeling a little outmatched here." Hoshiko said. Kotaro took her hand in his and she looked at him.
"Hey, as long as we work together, we can take on any enemy." He said. Hoshiko smiled at him.
"I love you." She told him.
"I love you, too." He said. They shared a quick kiss, and Hoshiko released his hand so she could take them both down from the wall and join in the fray. Soldiers surrounded them, and Hoshiko used her shadow bending to knock them all away, and Kotaro did the same with his lightning, which was stronger than usual due to the comet.
A few of the tanks tried to fire at them, and Hoshiko created an inky shadow to block the blasts before sending it towards the tanks, the shadows growing over the metal, and with great concentration, pushing them in and crushing them, but not completely. She made sure to leave enough room inside for the soldiers to breathe. Once it was done, she looked down at her hands, unable to believe she had gotten such power. She smirked and raised her hands, gathering the shadows around her to cover her limbs, torso, and face, until the only thing recognizable was her crystalline blue eyes. She moved on all fours, a shadow panther, with four shadowy tentacles sprouting out of her back. They seemed much thicker than the ones before, and moved more erratically than they used to. A sign of how much power she wielded. She used the four new appendages to easily take out the soldiers that surrounded Kotaro in less than a minute. Once they were gone, he looked over at her and grinned.
"That's a version of you I haven't seen in a long time." He said. Hoshiko only grinned in return. She saw a small orb tumble near his feet, and she recognized it immediately, her shadows reaching out and grabbing him, quickly pulling him away as the grenade exploded. Kotaro looked back and he saw a masked man on an armored komodo rhino. "One of the Rough Rhinos?"
"I'm surprised they responded so quickly." Hoshiko growled out. She used another one of her shadows to knock the explosives expert off of his rhino, and grab his supply in the process. She threw it up in the air, and Kotaro blasted it with lightning, detonating all that had been in the bag at a reasonably safe distance, although it did level the better part of a nearby house. The man himself stood back up, reaching into his pocket to pull out four more grenades and throw them. Hoshiko used the shadows on her body to create a black dome to protect the pair of them as they went off around them. Once it had stopped, she brought them back to her body, making her a panther again, and Kotaro used his lightning to blast the man back into the remains of one of the crumbling houses.
"Care to give me a rundown on the Rhinos?" He asked as he continued to fight back the soldiers.
"That was Yeh-Lu, he's the explosives expert. We got rid of his stash, so we're good for now." Hoshiko said, pushing back more of the soldiers as well, "There's Ogodei and Kahchi, they use melee weapons. Ogodei's got a heavy weight on a chain, and Kahchi uses mostly blades. Fight them at a long distance, and you should be fine. Vachir is a former Yuyan archer with a specialty in flaming arrows, so try and get him before he gets you."
"And Mongke?" Kotaro asked as he blasted back another group of soldiers.
An animalistic growl sounded in Hoshiko's throat, "He's mine." Her shadows stuck into the ground before the soldiers, growing into a huge, black puddle around their feet. The puddle grabbed hold of them, and turned back into the shadows they had been before and she yanked them up, tossing them to some unknown part of the city. Kotaro was surprised at her sudden ferocity, but didn't question it. She had told him of how Mongke was once her master and he had seen the burns on her back, he didn't need to know anymore of why she wanted him to go down.
They fought their way through platoon after platoon of soldiers, more of them seeming to appear out of nowhere as they fought.
During the battle, they would occasionally run into other members of the order, who would help them out as much as they could before moving on. The real problem wasn't so much the individual soldiers themselves, but the huge iron tanks that were protecting them. There seemed to be more and more of them coming from every part of the city. Wherever they went, there seemed to be another tank waiting just around the corner to blast you into ashes. The Grand Masters of the order seemed to be able to disarm them easily enough, but others who were not of such a level had a little trouble doing the same. Pakku would freeze the tracks on which the tank would travel, and then use water bending to seep the ice into the metal and pull the tanks apart. Pian-Dao was more occupied with individual soldiers than he was with the tanks, but when he did come in contact with one, he was able to jam shut the windows that allowed the fire benders inside to blast at him with his sword. Jeong Jeong was still able to push them back with a fiery wall, but he never used his fire bending to try and hurt anyone, just keep them away. No one knew where Iroh had gone or how he was handling the battle, but no one questioned it. He was the Dragon of the West; he could handle himself just fine. Bumi seemed to make a game out of it, using earth bending to stack tanks on top of each other and make tank towers.
It wasn't long into the battle that they soon came across another one of the Rough Rhino brigade. Each individual one seemed to be commanding a group of platoons during the battle. The first one they found was Kahchi, who had plenty of soldiers who all carried blade-related weapons. Hoshiko used her shadow bending to easily knock away line after line of soldiers, Kotaro doing the same with his lightning. After a while, they saw that Kahchi was just using the soldiers to go first and tire them out before he had a chance at them. When they realized this, Hoshiko used her shadow bending to push back as many soldiers as she could before charging at Kahchi and knocking him off his rhino. She pinned him under her shadowy paws, and let out a wild roar in his face. Kahchi was stunned by the fact he was suddenly under a dangerous panther, and before he could even try and escape her grasp, she wacked him on the head and knocked him out.
Not too long after him, they found Vachir, who had fewer soldiers than Kahchi, but plenty of archers and arrows. They had to fight him at a distance, and it was difficult for them to get a clear shot at the marksmen, but they were relieved from battle when Pakku came and froze one of his arrows to his bow, rendering it useless. It didn't take much effort afterwards to knock him off the rhino and take out the rest of his soldiers. As the fighting went on, Hoshiko could no longer keep up the shadow panther form, and returned back to herself, using the shadows she had gathered to fight with instead.
Ogodei came charging out of nowhere at them, spinning his chains. He seemed to be alone. Hoshiko and Kotaro did their best to keep a distance from the man as he swung his weapons without haste. More than once, he hit the walls behind the couple's heads when he missed, and used the houses as leverage to fight them, making the space between them and his weapon tighter so he could get a better shot at them. After a good deal of dodging, Hoshiko managed to grab onto his chain before it could hit her, and held it there with her bending. Kotaro used his lightning to zap the metal chain, sending a wave of electrocution through the metal towards Ogodei. He was stunned from the power of it and fell off his rhino.
During the fight, Kotaro and Hoshiko ran off, trying to find somewhere quiet. They weren't abandoning the battle. They were young, and had plenty of energy, but they didn't have enough to fight off so many soldiers. They needed a break. They managed to find an empty house and moved against the walls so they could be hidden as they rested. Their chests heaved as they took in breath after breath of air. After a moment of silence, the couple looked at each other, and shared a small smile.
"How're you holding up?" Hoshiko whispered to him.
"Okay." He said, "And you?"
"Same as you." She said. They joined their hands together. "You haven't left my side since we started fighting."
"And I don't intend to." Kotaro said, "I promised I'd stay with you, and I will." Hoshiko nodded, but she had a solemn look on her face that didn't sit well with Kotaro.
"What is it?" He asked.
"We haven't found Mongke yet." She said, "I'd like a chance to give him a good beating before this battle is over." Kotaro sighed.
"I'm sure you will at some point." He said. "For now, can we just catch our breath before we risk our lives again?" Hoshiko grinned at him and took his hand in hers.
She looked out the window of one of the houses, "How do you think the others are doing?"
"I wish I knew." Kotaro replied. "I hope they're making it out alright."
A rumble pushed the two of them off of the wall they had been resting on. They quickly moved out of the house, blasting away the enemies nearby, jumping back into the fray.
Hoshiko was doing her best to maneuver around the soldiers as they blasted wave after wave of fire at her. She was already a little singed, and she wouldn't be surprised if she woke up with a bunch of burns all over, but for now, everything seemed as okay as it could be. She was with Kotaro, and they were fighting off their enemies together—at least, until a huge wave of fire blasted between them and the soldiers. Hoshiko looked to see the source and saw that it was the very reason she had come to Ba-Sing-Se.
Colonel Mongke gave her an arrogant smirk, and Hoshiko felt anger and rage swelling up inside her, the rhino-shaped brand on her back stinging again. She gathered up her shadows and threw them at him, and he blasted it away with fire. He sent out another blast, and she dashed to the side to avoid it.
Kotaro saw this sudden movement and saw Mongke sitting on his rhino just a few yards away. Hoshiko let out a wild snarl as she ran at him, gathering shadows on her arms to create two huge blades made of darkness. She jumped up on the rhino's head and started slashing at the man, who easily blocked the blows and he blasted her back with fire. She narrowly managed to defend herself with a shadow shield, but he had still burned her right leg and the corner of her left shoulder. Mongke yanked on the reigns of his rhino and they ran off. Hoshiko was quick to follow them, not seeing how Kotaro tried to follow after her.
"Hoshiko, wait!" He called to her, but she didn't seem to listen as she headed after the colonel, jumping up and running along the roof tops. Before Kotaro even had a chance to get up after her, he had to stop when someone threw a fire ball at him. He looked back and saw he had an entire platoon of soldiers waiting to fight him. He let out an annoyed groan and charged into the crowd, his fingers shooting sparks as he got ready.
Hoshiko ran after the rhino as Mongke rode it to another part of the city. She didn't know where, and she didn't really care at that moment. She just wanted to beat the crap out of Mongke. She wanted him to feel pain, just as she had when she had lived under him. She wanted to give him such a thrashing that he never forgot who she was. She wanted him to pay.
Eventually, the rhino came to a stop in a small square in the city, and Hoshiko jumped down from the roof tops, glaring at him.
"Do you people honestly believe you can defeat the Fire Nation?" Mongke asked her, "This is the day of Sozin's Comet. It is when fire benders are at their most powerful. We've already taken every major Earth Kingdom settlement. What is left for you to fight for?"
"Everything." Hoshiko growled, "The Fire Nation may have taken settlements, but there are people who live there. Lives that have been uprooted and destroyed by the Fire Nation. We're fighting for them, we're fighting to make sure this war ends, and we're fighting to bring the four nations back to four nations." Mongke rolled his eyes.
"A touching sentiment." He said, "But if you were trying to convince me to back down, I won't." He held out his fists, flames burning on either side of them.
"I didn't want you to." Hoshiko growled, the shadows of all the buildings gathering around her, pooling at her feet, shadowy tentacles growing out of the blackness, creating a shadow bending version of the octopus form. Mongke grinned at her readiness to fight him, and shot a blast of fire at her. She blocked it with her shadows and shot her hands forward, the tentacles doing the same. Mongke readied to defend himself, but instead of going for him, they went for his rhino, piercing it on all sides. The beast let out a wild cry and ran off so quickly that Mongke fell off. He quickly got on his feet, only to narrowly avoid a jab from one of Hoshiko's shadows.
He retaliated with a huge blast of fire, and Hoshiko quickly made a shield to block the huge attack. When it was over, she brought up an inky ball of shadow and fired it at him. He shot fire at it to keep it from hitting him, but once it came in contact with the flames, the shadow expanded, creating sharp black projectiles that honed in on him. He managed to block a few of them, but one scratched his cheek, and another one landed in his shoulder. He let out a grunt of pain, and when he reached to pull it out, it disappeared. Hoshiko smirked and brought up three more of the same shadowy balls, firing them all at him. He still used his fire to defend himself, and made it bigger to block the projectiles, but they never came. When he stopped, he saw that the three of them had joined together and made something else that shot out tentacles into the ground below his feet. With a swift motion of Hoshiko's hands, the ground was yanked out from under him, making him fall flat on his back into the ditch. Hoshiko's shadows took in the huge piece of earth that she had pulled up and covered it in her shadows, creating a solid weight to add onto her shadows. Mongke pushed himself up just as Hoshiko fired off the boulder.
Mongke let out an angry shout and blasted it with a huge wave of fire that destroyed Hoshiko's shadows and turned the rock into harmless ash. Hoshiko prepared herself for another attack, and brought up a shield when he fired at her. Once he was finished, she tried to attack again, only to block his attack again as he tried to blast her again. He came at her again and again, and Hoshiko had no choice but to defend herself from the attacks. When there was a pause in his attacks, Hoshiko looked over the side of the shield to see Mongke was building up his energy, and she quickly ducked behind the shield again as a huge wave of fire came at her, continuously blowing against her shield. She did her best to keep it up, but the power of the blast was enough to push her back a few feet. She had to attack him, but how could she when there was fire on all sides of her, and if she were to take down her shield, she would surely be burnt to death.
With a cry, she gathered up as many shadows as she could and created a much larger shield and had it curl back towards Mongke, turning his flames against him. He stopped the blast and blocked the flames that came toward him, and when the fire had cleared, he saw that Hoshiko had gone. He looked around the square, looking for any sign of the Shinjun. He smirked when he realized she was hiding from him.
"What's the matter, Hoshiko?" He called out, "Too scared to come out and fight?!"
"I'm not scared of you!" Hoshiko's voice shouted from an alley way. Immediately, Mongke shot a blast of fire through it and saw that Hoshiko had been hiding behind some store supplies that he had burnt up. He smirked and fired at her again, and she skillfully jumped up on the rooftop to avoid the blow. She ran across the roof of the building, narrowly dodging Mongke's fire and jumped down into another alley. Mongke ran over to it and blasted fire through the entire place, but found that Hoshiko wasn't hiding there. He kept his fists raised as he walked down the alley, looking for any sign of the Shinjun girl.
"If you're not afraid, then why don't you fight me head on?" Mongke shouted, his voice echoing through the alley as Hoshiko peeked around the corner of the way he had come in. She could see his back as he spoke. "You seemed to have gained some power since you ran away. Why don't you use it?" She gathered up some shadows in her hand.
"Because there's more to fighting than just barreling in!" Hoshiko shouted. Mongke turned in the direction of her voice just as she shot of the shadow ball at him. He blasted fire at it, and it split apart into a group of projectiles again. He blasted them away and ran to the entrance of the alley, finding himself back in the square again, no Hoshiko in sight. He walked through the square, eyes scanning over everything to try and find her. "There's strategy! And tactics! That's what I plan to use against a meat-headed soldier like you!" He couldn't determine where her voice was coming from.
"So your tactics are to run and hide?" Mongke taunted, "You can't come out and fight me like the warrior you claim to be?"
"I never said I was a warrior!" Hoshiko's voice shouted, and Mongke heard it coming from his left and he went over that way, fists raised. "I said I was going to fight in this war for the lives you've ruined!" Mongke shot a blast of fire down the alley way, and saw that he had made a mistake, as Hoshiko was not there. "And if you think you can taunt me into getting my ni-nin out, you can forget it! I defeated her long ago! It's just you and me, Mongke!" He went over to the one next to where he had just fired and shot another blast of fire down it. This time, he found a shadowy shield blocking something and he grinned.
"And that's just the way I like to fight." He said, "One on one!" He fired another blast and Hoshiko kept her shield up, pushing against the fire, but Mongke didn't let up easily, and she felt her feet being pushed back again, making trails in the ground she stood on. She let out a grunt as she tried to keep the shield up against the fire, but it was becoming much harder than she thought it would be. Beads of sweat trailed down her forehead as the burning heat surrounded her, and she found it was getting harder to breathe as it went on. She made the shield curl again, pushing the fire back, and she managed to run away before Mongke had a chance to fire at her again, and she ran behind one of the houses, hiding there. She panted as she tried to catch her breath.
Why had she run so foolishly into the battle? She had heard Kotaro calling for her, but she didn't wait for him. She should have waited! She couldn't handle this fight on her own.
Kotaro blasted back another group of soldiers. He was getting tired of fighting them all off. He ran down the side of the street, and in the corner of his eye saw someone barreling towards him. He turned and prepared himself for another fight, only to see that it was Pian-Dao, who was fighting off other soldiers as well. They had followed the sword master down the road, and Kotaro grabbed the man's sword, using his lightning bending to quickly charge up the metal in the blade, he ran towards the soldiers, a ferocious and wolf-like snarl coming from his throat as he sliced the air before them, sparks of lightning flying out of the blade and zapping each one of the soldiers, paralyzing them. They fell to the ground and Kotaro panted with the effort he had put into the attack, he held out the sword, and Pian-Dao swiped it from him.
"Don't do that again." He advised. Kotaro nodded, his chest heaving as he tried to keep breathing normally, "Where's Hoshiko?" He looked up when they saw two Fire Nation tanks approaching them.
"I lost her." Kotaro said, he held up his hands, ready to fight off the tanks, and Pian-Dao held up his blade. Kotaro zapped the metal outsides of each tank to paralyze all who were inside, and Pian-Dao ran at the tanks, pushing his blade in at the hinges of the windows that allowed those in the tanks to fire at them, jamming them shut. "She went after Mongke on her own."
Pian-Dao looked at him with wide eyes, "Why would she do that?"
"He's her old master." Kotaro said, "She hates him more than anyone else in the world." Pian-Dao nodded solemnly. He knew how cruel people can be to Shinjuns in the Fire Nation, and Mongke was cruel on a regular basis. He'd hate to think of what he did to Hoshiko while she worked under him.
"I see." He said, "You should find her quickly. Mongke is probably the most powerful fire bender here, excluding those of the Order. We don't want to lose anyone in this fight." Kotaro nodded and the two of them ran off in different directions, Pian-Dao going to join into more of the battle, while Kotaro ran to try and find Hoshiko.
As he passed a road, he found himself face-to-face with even more soldiers. He let out an annoyed groan. "I'm really starting to get tired of this!" He shouted as he charged up lightning around his hands. He ran at the soldiers, who all shot fire at him when they saw him coming. It didn't take very long for his lightning to electrocute a good portion. Others ran, for fear of getting zapped to death. Once they were gone, Kotaro looked around, searching for a good way to look around the city. He eventually just decided to climb up to the roof of one of the nearby buildings. He looked around, seeing huge, steep mountains of earth shooting out of the ground only to fall back just as quickly. It was the same with the huge walls of fire and water that were used in battle. Everyone in the Order was giving their all to fight off this enemy and save the city of Ba-Sing-Se.
He glanced up at the sky, seeing that Sozin's comet still flew, a bright, flaming tail coming behind it. He frowned when he realized this battle was far from over. He looked back out over the rooftops.
"Come on, Hoshi…" He muttered quietly, "Give me a sign…" He kept searching, when something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He turned and saw some streams of fire shooting out in one area. It wasn't very large, and there wasn't many more, so whoever was fire bending was doing so alone. He kept a careful eye on the area, putting his attention on that. Then he saw a wave of shadow come up in response to an attack. "Hoshiko!" He ran across the roof, sliding down it and landing on the ground, running over to where they were.
Hoshiko looked back, and Mongke spotted her, she quickly ducked back for cover as flames suddenly engulfed the house she was hiding behind. She jumped up and ran around the burning building. She brought up more shadowy projectiles at Mongke, and he blasted each one. She skidded to a halt so she could get her proper footing, and she brought up a huge wave of shadow. Mongke blasted the top of it with fire, but it didn't do much good. He jumped back before it could hit him, and fired back at her. Hoshiko dodged it and ran to hide, but Mongke shot a huge wave of fire in front of her before she had a chance to get away.
She turned in his direction, glaring at him. He returned the glare and Hoshiko concentrated on gathering up shadows around her, planning to take the panther form once more. Mongke shot more fire at her, and she created a shield to block it. She tried to keep it up while still gathering shadows, but it was very difficult to do. The heat of the flames was getting stronger and stronger, and she worried that it was going to burn her entire body. The image of her mother's burned face flashed in her mind, and she felt a sudden drop in her stomach at the thought of becoming like that. She strengthened the shield and moved back as the flames went back to Mongke. He was able to block it and push it aside easily, and created a huge wave of fire to throw at her before she was ready to defend herself.
Her eyes widened as the flames came too close too fast, and she readied herself for the burns, but they never came. She looked to see Kotaro had jumped in front of her, the heat of his own lightning pushing back the flames that threatened to hit her. She smiled at the sight of him, and he smiled back at her. The lightning just barely went by Mongke and he looked at this new opponent with a sharp glare.
"Didn't we agree we wouldn't leave each other's side?" Kotaro asked her, ignoring Mongke's presence for a moment.
"Sorry, I kinda forgot about you." Hoshiko said with a shrug. Kotaro mockingly made an offended noise that made Hoshiko giggle.
"So…" Mongke said, looking at Kotaro, who turned to him with a glare, "This is your boyfriend that you made such a fuss about."
"He's not my 'boyfriend'," Hoshiko said, coming up to Kotaro's side, "He's my hanbun tamashi, he is half of my soul. If you had any respect for Shinjun culture, you would know that."
"I don't think I've ever gone up against a lightning bender," Mongke said, holding up his fists, "But I'm sure this will be a battle to remember."
Kotaro and Hoshiko readied themselves to fight against Mongke. "Yeah, you're going to remember this day as the day you were beaten by a pair of Shinjun 'pack mules'." Hoshiko growled.
We're getting closer! I'm kinda excited. Also, an early Happy Thanksgiving to you all!