Before anything else, I own nothing but the original characters, and content therein related to them. Avatar: The Last Airbender is owned by Nickelodeon, and any mentioned creator's work belongs to them, and them alone.
Chapter 8 The Chase.
Admiral Chan sat in his office reading reports from fleet admirals and commanders across the world. He crumpled the latest one from Captain Akira into a ball and lit it on fire with his bending, burning the paper to ash in the air.
An unforeseen consequence of the Navy's rearmament after the failure at the north was that while the navy had retracted to undergo modernization, the savages had broken out of their stronghold in the north using captured ships to reclaim large swaths of the north sea, and rout southwards toward the south pole. Captain Akira's report went over, in extremely fine detail, how the savages had put up an equal fight on the water and fended off a boarding attempt, resulting in their mutual retreats.
Admiral Chan rubbed his eyebrow in frustration. In attempting to gain an advantage at sea, The Fire Navy had opened the door for their enemies in the tribes to undo almost three decades of gains over the ocean, and they did so with weapons The Fire Nation had left behind. Sighing, The Admiral looked up to the ceiling of his office. The Fire Lord would not be pleased by the news, but in due time the Fire Navy would still rise as the victor at sea.
The steam wagon had stopped just shy of reaching the Red Ridge mountain range. After a day's travel the team found no indication that The Avatar was in the area.
"Well this is great." Mai said blandly, as the four stood outside of the wagon, the mongoose lizards having been let out to eat and stretch their legs before they'd be needed.
"Oh quit whining, we're just off the trail. I'm sure that the demon boy is probably at the nearest town." Connor said, as he practiced one of the kata's he'd been slacking on recently, sending a kick into the air, and not falling over in the process. Ty Lee found it strange that Connor would be trying to firebend.
"What's Connor doing? His chi and chakras are all blocked, and he's not a fire bender." Ty Lee commented to Azula.
Azula rolled her eyes at her friend's naive presumptions. "Martial training mostly." Azula said with a shrug. "He's strong, but has no discipline."
"Oy, I heard that." Connor said from the side.
"Practicing katas instills what discipline he lacks, and provides a broader base of knowledge for him to use in combat, as he's unable to bend." Azula said.
"Connor's not-" Ty Lee closed her mouth, not wanting to oust her new friend, and instead directed her attention to the mongoose lizards. "Hey, what's that?" She pointed, the other three looking at where the lizard's were
Azula observed her steed nibbling on what looked like a dead rabbit-cat, and furrowed her brow. Kneeling, she picked up a few strands of thick white fur that did not belong to the dead brown coated varmint.
"Does this hair look like it belongs to that bison the Avatar has?" Azula asked everyone, before turning to Connor. "You were closest to the beast." Azula said, standing as she held the fur out towards Connor. He took one look at it and nodded.
"Looks the right shade and length." Connor said as he dusted off his pant leg.
Azula turned and looked north east, where more thick strands of fur could be seen stuck to the grass and trees. "The Avatar is flying North East from us. If we go now we might catch them by dusk." Azula said, before the team set to packing away the lizards.
Not ten miles away did the team come upon the remains of a campsite. While Azula wanted to immediately move once more, having spotted the flying bison fleeing from them eastward, Connor stopped to inspect the site. "Do I need to remind you we are in pursuit of The Avatar?" Azula asked.
Connor picked up a wad of paper, then sniffed it. "Gunpowder… One of those three we saw at Omashu has gunpowder with them, probably a musket too somehow. Doesn't know to stuff the paper down the barrel with the bullet." Connor said, as he rejoined the ladies in the cabin of the steam wagon.
"The Avatar and his companions were at the Northern Water Tribe during the Siege, it's possible one of them stole Fire Nation weapons." Azula said.
"So they might have a gun like Connor does." Mai stated more than anything, as the steam wagon lurched forward.
The second campsite they found was far less disturbed than the previous one. The beast was once again visible in the distant night sky, and without bothering to stop, the team followed the bison's straight line trajectory east.
Making preparations before the inevitable battle before them, Connor turned to look at the girls in the steam wagon, as everyone mounted up onto their mongoose-lizards. "Under no circumstances, do any of you get in front of me." Connor said, as he checked to ensure he had enough paper cartridges for his musket. "And if you see anyone else with a musket, you find something solid to hide behind, or start moving to the side. It's a lot harder to hit a man running across your field of view than it is to hit him running away or towards you." He continued. "While I don't doubt your abilities, leave the guy with the gun to me." Connor cocked his musket, as the steam wagon lurched to a stop.
As Aang, Katara, Sokka and Toph stood on the edge of their mountainside campsite, three jaws dropped. The doors of the iron carriage down the trail opened, revealing the dangerous ladies and their giant friend. "It's the freaks we met in Omashu!" Katara said, backing up a pace as the giant between them raised his thunderstick.
"We can take 'em, four on three." Toph said.
"Uh, actually Toph, there's four of them." Sokka corrected, as he took his thunder stick off his shoulder, and cocked the hammer back.
"I know. I wasn't counting you. No bending and all." Toph said, with a grin.
Before Sokka had a chance to direct any anger at her, a boom sounded out from down the trail, and dirt was thrown into the air between the water tribe sibling's feet. Katara jumped away from the mini-explosion of earth, and Toph stepped to the side, the sudden vibration overloading her senses for a moment. "They have an earth bender?" Toph asked.
"No, it's a Fire Nation Weapon that one of them has." Sokka said, as he knelt down and rested his shooting elbow on his right knee. Sokka fired at the one with the red hair, causing the freak and his mongoose-lizard to veer sharply to the right for a moment, before all four of the creatures and their riders began to charge up the hill. "Well, I've done all I can do, now let's get out of here!" Sokka said, as everyone but Toph ran towards Appa.
Toph created a raised wall of earth halfway down the trail before turning tail and jumping on Appa's back, only for the stone between them to explode in a shower of pellets and dust, the four lizards and their riders coming through a hole that had been blown in the wall.
Another gunshot was let off, and several small darts were loosed into the sky, but by then Appa had already gotten airborne.
Now a safe distance away, Katara looked at the rest of the group. "I can't believe they followed us all the way from Omashu."
"I still think we could have taken 'em." Toph said, her arms wrapped around a hold on Appa's saddle.
"Are you kidding me? The crazy blue fire and daggers being hurled all over are bad enough, but the last time we saw them, one of those girls did something took my bending away. That's scary." Katara said.
"And the giant mutant has a Fire Nation nation weapon called a thunderstick. You know, because of the boom. Two actually. They throw a little piece of metal so fast that almost nothing can stop it." Sokka said.
"Why's he such a problem then? Don't you have one of those sticks too?" Toph asked.
"I haven't exactly had the time to get very good with it." Sokka retorted, before he turned, and saw the sun rising ahead of him. "Oh come on!"
After the last encounter that Azula had with The Avatar and his companions, they followed the trail of shed fur east in the steam wagon until they'd reached a river bank, where it looked as if the Bison had crash landed.
"Wads of wet fur. How delightful." Mai said as Azula pulled several strands off of a nearby rock.
"Hmmm. They're not wads, more like bundles, or bunches… It's got an "uh" sound." Ty Lee trailed off.
"Clumps?" Mai suggested.
"Clumps! They're clumps!" Ty Lee said, before hugging Mai, who just let her excited friend do her thing, before looking down and finding that there was a trail of the fur heading south east.
"The trail goes this way." Mai said, pointing vaguely in the direction of the fur.
Azula looked around, and noticed that there were several clipped tree's across the river, but before she could speak, Connor had already opened his mouth.
"Then that's where the little devil's going to be going." Connor said.
"What makes you so sure of that?" Azula asked.
Connor pointed at the fur in the river. "haʊ ðə hɛl duː juː θɪŋk ɔːl ðɪs fɜː ɡɒt ɪn ðə ˈwɔːtə?" Conner asked quickly in his native English with an eye roll. "They washed the beast off. Took it's fur, and made a false trail. Since there's no footprints up that way, they had to fly. The only one who can fly without the beast is the demon boy. So he's leading us away from his friends."
Azula raised an eyebrow at that. Initially she thought that the Avatar had used his friends as a distraction while he fled north, but the more compassionate and evidence-based conclusion seemed more likely, and what she would have arrived to after another second of calculation. "He's trying to give us the slip…" Azula looked between the three of her traveling partners. "Mai Ty Lee, head north, find the others. Connor, you're with me."
In the air above the forest, Katara, Sokka and Momo looked down from Appa, searching for Toph. They'd stashed most of their possessions away in the woods, and were riding the bison bareback. "Toph couldn't have made it too far." Sokka said, as he crawled along Appa's back, his thunderstick slung over his shoulder. Momo growled at something, catching the water tribe boy's attention. "What is it, Momo-OOOH NO!" He said, going wide eyed as he saw two of the four mongoose-lizard riding freaks trailing them from the ground. "Katara, we've got company!" He shouted back to his sister, taking his weapon off of his shoulder, before leaning over Appa's side.
"How did they find us?" Katara asked, as Sokka fired off a shot behind her.
"Appa, please go faster!" Sokka said, as he grabbed a paper cartridge in his pocket, hastily reloading at an awkward kneeling angel.
"He's too tired!" Katara said, shaking the reins, as Appa started losing altitude.
"We just need to make it across the river." Sokka said, before putting a spare paper cartridge in his mouth to hold it, before shooting down at the two again, and once more beginning the process of reloading.
Appa scrapped treetops, and broke branches as he tried to stay in the air. Finally coming down, the bison skipped off the water of the river below him once, before crashing into the dirt on the other side of the body of water. Sokka and Katara pushed themselves up, and the young boy let out a small chuckle. "We should be safe now." Eating his words, the two girl's lizards didn't stop when they reached the water's edge, and instead ran across it.
Katara jumped off of Appa's back, and pushed against the water, sending a wave toward the girl in lighter clothing. To her surprise, the girl jumped off of the lizard, and into the air, bouncing off of two trees with a level of acrobatic skill she'd only ever seen Aang poses, before dropping down to the ground, and rolling under Katara's next attack from her water pouch. The girl cartwheeled out of the way of another two quick attacks that Katara unleashed as her friend in dark clothes reached the other side of the river, and rode up beside them, throwing three darts at Katara.
Sokka, in an act of bravery, or stupidity, tried whacking the darts out of the air with his thunderstick, causing all of them to stick into the wooden stock of his weapon. Sokka took his chances with his trusty boomerang first, and threw it the moment it left the sheath on his back. The girl in dark clothing dodged the attack, and sent more darts flying at him, which he again, used the thunderstick to whack out of the air.
The two fire nation girls nodded to each other, and as Sokka broke the darts off of his weapon, the dark and gloomy girl charged toward his sister, while the lite and bouncy girl jumped off a rock, and sailed over his head to land behind him. He felt two dull impacts in his right arm, and dropped his thunderstick. Ducking, as he could hear his boomerang returning, the girl who'd hit him jumped to the side, while the flying blade stuck into the dirt beside him. He grabbed it and spun with his working arm, only for that too to be struck, and to go numb. Not giving up just yet, Sokka kicked at the girl, only for his knee to be hit, and go limp. Seeing no other options, Sokka dove in for a headbut, but ended up tripping over his dropped thunderstick. The girl's next strike went too high, and as a result Sokka fell face first into the girl, knocking both of them to the ground.
Sokka found himself stuck on top of the much lighter girl, who was rapidly turning red, as she realized that the water tribe boy had his head between her breasts. Sokka did what he could to turn himself over and onto his back, as the girl sat up and held her arms over her chest, speechless.
"I am so sorry about my brother, he's an idiot sometimes." Katara said, feeling embarrassed for her opponent, just before her dress was pinned to the ground by two of the dreary girl's knives. In surprise, Katara spun her arms in circles, before she lost ballance, and the shoulders of her dress were too pinned to the ground.
"Hey, don't apologize for me, she's the one that took my leg out!" Sokka said, kicking his still mobile leg into the air for emphasis.
"I thought when Ty Lee and I caught you guys it would have been more exciting… Ah well, victory is boring." The gloomy girl said, as the now named Ty Lee stood up, still red as a beat.
Appa took the moment to interject that there was still one contender left in the fight, as he spun, and slammed the two fire nation girls with a gust of wind generated by his tail, sending them both flying into the river.
As Ty Lee and Mai pulled themselves from the river, the peppy girl wrung her braid free of water before she looked at her friend. "Was it just me, or was that guy kinda cute." She said.
Mai rolled her eyes at Ty Lee. "Better not tell Connor, he might get jealous." Mai said sarcastically.
"Oh my gosh you won't say anything will you?" Ty Lee asked in worry. Mai just sighed.
Azula and Connor rode side by side, following the fur trail south over a rocky ridge, into the remains of an old mining town. They stopped their lizard's about twenty paces from The Avatar by Connor's guess, finding the boy to be sitting at the far end of town in front of a collapsed building, staff in his lap.
"Alright, you caught up with me, now who are you and what do you want?" The Avatar said, sounding both tired and irritable.
"You mean you haven't guessed? You don't see the family resemblance? Here's a hint." Azula said, before covering her left eye with her right hand. She lowered her tone, and did her best impression of her brother. "I must find the avatar to restore my honor." The Avatar seemed unamused, while Connor just held back a laugh. "See, Connor here gets it."
"So what now?" The Avatar asked.
"Now?" Azula asked in faux intrigue. "Now it's over, you're tired and you have no place to go. You can run, but I'll catch you."
"I'm not running." The Avatar said as he stood.
Azula smirked. "Now remember Connor, we can't kill the Avatar, not yet."
"Ay. I remember. Can't let him be born again." Connor said, as he slung his rifle across his back.
The two stared at The boy for all of ten seconds, before Azula offered one final olive branch. "Do you really want to fight me?"
There was a crowing of an ostrich-horse, before one ran out from the nearby alleyway. Jumping from it's back, was none other than the banished prince Zuko. "Yes. I really do." He answered in place of the Avatar, as he threw his conical hat behind him, while his mount found itself some shade under a building's wooden awning.
"Zuko!?" The Avatar asked.
"I was wondering when you'd show up, Zu-zu." Azula said, crossing her arms.
Both The Avatar and Connor stifled laughter at the nickname. "Zu-zu?" The airbender among them asked.
"I know, right?" Connor commented idly.
"Back off you two, The Avatar is mine." Zuko said, as he took up a stance that would allow him to attack in two directions if needed.
"A bold demand for someone so outnumbered." Azula said, directing her finger tips towards her brother.
Connor drew his pistol in his left hand, and his cutlass in his right. "Now you, I can shoot." He said, cocking the lock of his gun back, and pointing the muzzle at Zuko, as he kept the tip of his sword directed towards the Avatar, who held his staff up defensively.
A palpable moment passed, before Azula made the first move, sending a small but powerful jet of flame at her brother, which sent him flying into the nearest building as he intercepted it with a disk of his own orange fire.
The Avatar tried to fly away, but Azula prevented his escape by drawing down a curtain of flames into the Avatar, which forced him to create an ais shield with his glider. Once the boy fell on his back, Connor rushed towards him with his sword ready.
The boy rolled out of the way, and blocked two light strikes Connor had made in an attempt to wound the boy only enough so he'd surrender. "Connor!" Was the only warning he'd gotten from Azula, before he ducked out of the way of an orange fire blast. Backpedaling, Connor watched as Azula exchanged flames with her brother, as the Avatar tried slipping in between them to get out of the town.
"ɪts laɪk ˈhɜːdɪŋ kæts." Conner said to himself, before trying to take Zuko out of the equation. Pointing his pistol at the prince, Connor pulled the trigger, only to miss him entirely, only managing to send the lead ball rocketing into the dirt near the mongoose-lizards, both of them were sufficiently spooked enough to start running out of town.
Azula looked back at Connor who sputtered at his mistake. "Sorry!" He said, putting his pistol away, as Zuko laughed at his sister's misfortune.
The Avatar, taking any break he could get, ran up the stairs of a building to escape the fight, all three of the other combatants following him. Seeing that the floor had collapsed, Aang decided to use an air scooter to stay aloft as the other's came up behind him. Azula was agile enough to regain her balance, and cling to the side of the wall, Zuko was not so limber, and flailed his arms fruitlessly as he fell down to the first floor. Connor, being slower than them both, realized the floor had collapsed before he'd even reached the door, and slid to a halt just outside.
Connor pointed his sword at The Avatar "Oh, now that's cheating!" As if the world agreed with Connor, the boy lost the levitation effect of the air scooter too soon, and instead leapt back to the wall behind him, and ran along it, circling the inside of the building at great speed, kicking Azula off of the ledge she'd found safety on, and rolling under Connor's legs.
The American born Irishman bent town to look between his legs, before The Avatar sent a jet of air into his backside, which sent Connor tumbelling ass over teakettle through the door and down to the first floor of the building.
Though Connor shouted in fear as Zuko did, he'd somehow managed to land upright alongside Azula. "Whoa." He slurred. Though dizzy, he stumbled out of the building, just before Zuko could get up, and was blasted through a window frame by his sister.
There was a sharp whistle from down the street, and Connor turned, his vertigo dispelled, as he saw the water tribe siblings standing at the entrance to town, the boy with his musket raised. "Azula." Connor said, gently putting the spine of his sword to her abdomen to push her back behind him, as he backed away from Zuko, letting The Avatar join his friends, and alerting her to the fact they were being held at gunpoint.
From the ally the young earth bender and Azula's uncle Iroh joined the opposing force. Azula and Connor backed up, until they had reached the collapsed building at the edge of town. "Well would you look at this. Enemies and traitors, all working together." Azula said, as Connor kept his sword pointed at everyone in front of him. "I'm done. You got me, I know when I'm beaten. A princess surrenders with honor." She said, raising her hands.
Connor grit his teeth together as he put his sword in it's sheath. Sokka shifted his aim from Connor to Azula, as she stepped out from behind him. "If I may speak, I think I have an offer that would placate all parties." Connor said, gently raising his hands.
"Save it, freak." Sokka said, cocking his musket.
"Oy, don't get rude with me. You think that the prince here's going to just let you go after you deal with us?" Connor asked. Zuko shifted his attention left towards Aang. "Or that The Avatar won't try to run the second he sees fit?" Aang looked right towards Zuko. "And Iroh over there's a wanted man, you think he's not gonna run off? What even is your plan? Capture us both and drag us along to the nearest Earth Kingdom town that might not even be able to hold us?" Connor asked Katara. "Leave us in these two's care?" Conner pointed with just his left hand at Zuko. "Maybe execute us, if you got the stones." Connor said to Aang. "I say, we all just walk away. Separate for twelve hours, get a nap in, and then go back to chasing each other."
"A bold demand for someone so outnumbered." Zuko said, repeating what Azula had said earlier.
Iroh looked left at his nephew. "Yet perhaps it is the wisest decision." He said, lowering his hands slightly, and loosening his stance.
Azula smirked, and swiftly struck, casting a jet of blue fire at Iroh, who had foolishly let his guard down first. He shouted in pain, and nearly everyone was shocked into a state of distraction. Azula grabbed Connor by his belt, and used the full force of twin fire jets projected from her feet to propel them over the collapsed building to give them a head start on their escape.
Sokka was the first to react to Azula's attack, and as she lifted off into the air, he aimed his thunderstick at her, and as everyone else unleashed Fire, Water, Earth, and Air, he pulled the trigger.
Connor felt his feet leave the earth for all of a few seconds, before he came crashing back down to the ground. Pushing himself up, he realized that he hadn't been shot, and that Azula had managed to launch the both of them onto the other side of the collapsed building and the town's wall. "Wow. And here I thought we were gonners. Thank's Azula, should give us a few minutes to…" Connor trailed off as he turned, and found Azula sitting on the ground, looking blankly at her own feet, her left hand held to her side. Azula pulled her hand away, and red came away with it, as blood soaked through her shirt.
"C-Connor…" Azula muttered, before falling onto her back.