Chapter One Hundred and Thirteen
The new world was… a somewhat dirty iron hallway, metal lanterns keeping it well-lit and pipes running along the tops of the slightly sooty walls. The air carried a mix of scents, predominately the cloying scent of coal-smoke undercut by the sharper smell of sea-water, and, from the slight shifting of the ground, that meant…
We were on Prince Zuko's ship.
… probably.
But was the Fire Nation the bad guys I remembered them being, or were they the good guys in this alternate universe, the evil Water Tribes having engaged in a century of naval conquest aboard their frozen dreadnaughts, the Avatar being Zuko's and Azula's only hope to stop the Dark Tide of Conquest from drowning the land?
(Image)
Well, not going to find out waiting here, I thought, looking to Mina. "Fire Nation ship," I explained. "Stay non-lethal until we can figure out who the players are."
"I, yeah?" the girl replied, confused. "You… right. I'm there for ya, Sparky!" she promised.
Now it was my turn to be confused, "Uh, good?"
Focusing on the now, I picked a direction, and started walking, glancing back to make sure Mina was following me, turning the corner and practically running into two stereotypical Fire Nation soldiers, skull-masks and all.
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"Oh, hi?" I greeted them. "Take us to your leader?"
For a long moment the pair stared at us, before one dropped into a combat stance, while the other yelled "INTRUDERS!"
"I mean, technically," I agreed, "but-"
Which is when the first soldier moved to strike, and, yeah, that was enough politeness.
Darting forward, I pulled on my main Quirk, and shocked the shit out of him, as he started to move, flames just beginning to swirl around his fist, only to suddenly dissipate as he lost control of his body.
As I did so, I found I had to actively hold myself back, the flow wanting to ravage my target until nothing but twitching, burned meat remained, but, with a force of will, I kept its touch light on the metal-clad soldier, who, with a scream, more of surprise than pain, dropped to the ground, still twitching even after I stopped.
Turning to the other, having had to concentrate solely on the first to keep the damage minimal, Mina had already taken the man down, bonds of low-level acid holding him in place, as he started to yell again, "Bend-aaaaahhh!"
Shocking him too, careful to modulate my flow to avoid hitting Mina, he slumped, smoking slightly.
For a moment, I worried I'd gone too far, but, as Mina pulled away her Quirk's expression, though she stared at the fluid, as if it was confusing her, I put a hand over the man's mask, and… yes, he was still breathing.
Good.
However, from the calls that were now echoing through the ship, they knew we were here, and they were not happy about this fact.
"Sparky?" my partner questioned, unsure.
"We go up, I'll have a chat with the man in charge, and if need be I'll open a portal and we'll out," I told her, the woman nodding, both of us taking off down the ship's corridor, up a set of stairs, and coming across three more Fire Nation soldiers, these ones wielding swords.
Turning my hand to lightning, I grabbed the lead one's slashing weapon, shocking him through it, twisting around him about to lash out with my other limb, pushing number two to the side, into the wall, and tazing him as well, Mina dashing past me on a thin layer of acid to catch the third's blade with a gel-clad hand, copying me, the substance packed tight enough to stop the edge of his blade before it got close to her skin, and, with a rolling throw, she slammed him into the floor, the man winded but struggling, only to be shocked into unconsciousness by me a moment later, the self-imposed non-lethal limit getting easier to work with the more I did this.
With a nod to my partner, we kept going, up another set of stairs, and, around the corner, I could see natural daylight spilling in.
Turning, I called upon Creation, pulling on my reserves to spew Containment Foam from my fingertip, painting the top of the hallway, letting it expand again and again as I went back and forth, using what felt like half my reserve to completely block off the passage, leaving only one way to go. "Stay here for a moment," I commanded. "I can kind of pass, but…"
The heteromorphic girl winced, "Yeah, I kinda guessed. Knock 'em dead, Sparky!"
"Hopefully things won't go that bad," I quipped, turning back towards the doorway, pausing as a wave of tiredness hit, a feeling of strain tugging at every part of me, body and soul, but I pushed through it, and, moving at a jog, emerged into the morning light, blue reflected at me from every direction as the ship made its way between towering icebergs, and-
Ohfuck!
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A blast of fire came roaring for my head, and I threw myself into a roll, coming up as Zuko, who looked older in real life than I expected, and damn did that scar look bad, fired a few more fireballs, which were fast, but I'd dealt with worse. Spinning about, between the first two, I Created a thermal glove for my left hand, batting the last attack away with my now white-covered limb, the substance in a state of partial-extrusion and thus armoring me tightly.
"Who are you!?" the scarred young man demanded, voice angry and carrying with it the warble of teenage awkwardness, the fighter still in a ready stance, while General Iroh, his uncle and minder, sat off to the side, at a low table covered in tiles, along with a steaming tea pot and cup, the elderly Master Firebender looking at me with the slightest of frowns.
"Denki," I smiled, not taking the attempted burning seriously, as I kind of expected it. "Denki Kaminari. And are you..." I paused, trying to figure out which address would confirm my suspicions faster. Given we were clearly at one of the poles, and this was a Fire Nation ship, things seemed close to canon, but this was an AU, so something was clearly going to be off. "Zuko, son of Ursa?" I settled on.
Iroh's expression twitched slightly, though he was still unreadable, while Zuko just glared at me. "That's Prince Zuko!" the exiled royal snapped. "And what are you doing on my ship!?"
"Would you believe I'm on vacation?" I shot back with a smirk, the young man's expression telling me that no, no he didn't, as he launched another fireball at my head.
Dodging it, the Firebender charged me, leaping up into the air, getting impressive distance, the young man flipping in a somersault, and, with one leg extended, he fired off a wave of flame that was a little harder to dodge, but not too bad, Shoto able to pump out far fucking more, well, firepower, though there was something about the fire he created that seemed… off.
Or, it could be the fact that I now was a Firebender myself that added an extra dimension to everything flame-related.
Either way, he landed, and went on the offensive through martial arts alone, and the boy was both fast and good. Better than me, but, after sparring with the likes of All Might, I could deal with a superior opponent while holding my own, and while he was absolutely in shocking range, I was also learning a good deal from him through Martial Talent, and didn't want to use that Trump Card unless I had to.
Zuko shifted his stance and lunged for me, but I fell back, coming in with a palm strike of my own, my greater than human strength taking him back even as he crossed his arms to block the blow, which sent him skidding several feet across the iron deck.
"So, can we go back to talking, or…" I questioned.
"What, so you can lie some more? No, I'll beat the answers out of you!" the teen growled, clenching his hands and jerking them downwards, making twin daggers of flame jut from the bottoms of his fists.
Iroh, meanwhile, cleared his throat, "Perhaps we should-"
But the Prince didn't let him talk, charging me once again instead with a roar of anger, going for fast slashes, as I started to soak up this set of techniques instead, the young man not realizing he'd made this fight several times easier for me, as, by limiting his attack options, he became much simpler to predict.
Slash after slash came my way, until, with a spin, he went for a kick that was just a touch too telegraphed, letting me counter with one of my own that slammed into his chest first, and sent him spinning backwards.
Having seen him fight, I concentrated, closing both of my hands as well, and with a jerk, tried to form twin daggers of my own, only for the fire to uselessly billow down and away.
"You're a Firebender!?" Zuko demanded.
"Among other things," I shrugged, glancing at my fists. Was it the flame-resistant covering? No, then the other hand should've been fine. "Huh, harder than it seems. Keep going, I want another look at it."
An expression of rage twisted across the young man's features, as he screamed, "Gaaah!" and charged me once again, dismissing his daggers, which… did make this harder. Now with naked aggression, Zuko opened with a fireball, which I parried with my protected hand, but the projectile itself was a feint for him to come at with me another strike, one I barely was able to dodge, as well as the next two.
Strike four, a sweeping kick, saw me dancing back again, only for it to ignite mid-swing, sending a wave of fire to chase me, forcing me to leap high, arcing towards him, Zuko streaming a deluge of flame at me, instead of a compressed fireball, both of us breathing hard at this point. With a spin, and a bit of extruded Acid to try and protect my body, which itself caused a painful burning sensation that had nothing to do with the strength of the fluid, I was ready to weather the firestorm.
Regardless, as the flames passed me by, I was left to come down, ready to strike-
Bam-Snap!
As I was sent flying backwards, I learned four things in short order.
One, Firebenders apparently had super strength in this AU.
Two, my ribs could still be broken by that level of power.
Three, Zuko had, somehow, expected me to weather that attack and come out swinging.
And, worst of all, Four, when pressed, I reflexively pulled on One-for-All.
I bit back a scream of pain as my entire body spasmed, still flying away, fifteen feet in the air, my Defenses ringing as I was forced through the agony back into the fight, reflexively turning my feet to lightning and slamming them down into the metal of the deck, anchoring myself and reeling myself down hard, staggering as I tried to regain my balance.
"Ready to take me seriously now?" Zuko demanded, starting to stalk towards me.
Working my cramping muscles, my good humor gone, I spat blood off to the side. "You know what, fine. Let's do things your way."
Pulling on my main Quirk, electricity surged within me, and, taking a step forward, a tight control over my Elecrification, the energy roare-
Fuckhe'sfast!
In an instant, Iroh was there, right in front of me, expression furious, as he grabbed my hand, turned, pointed to a nearby glacier, a hundred feet away, and everything I was pumping out was yanked from my control and the stream of energy was fired towards it.
Reaching out about thirty feet, just a bit past the edge of the ship.
Then Twenty feet away.
Ten.
Five.
Three.
One.
I finished pulling back on my Quirk, as the old man, whose grip was like iron, stared at his own extended hand, two fingers pointed towards the unmolested iceberg, anger replaced with confusion.
Looking to me, the elderly Firebender commented, "I… expected more."
"What?" I shot back, offended. "I wasn't going to kill him! Just shock him a little to get him to stop trying to kill me!"
"… Even small amounts of a storm's fury can do far more damage than one would think," Iroh pointed out.
"Yes, which is why I control it pretty carefully," I informed him, turning my hand to lightning to slip it out of his grasp. "So, are we gonna go back to talking or-"
"Uncle! Step away from the assassin!" Zuko demanded.
Turning his back to me, Iroh stated, "I think if the visiting Spirit wished you harm, Prince Zuko, he would have done so already."
The look of exasperation on the teen's face was quite amusing. "There's no such thing as Spirits, Uncle!" the young firebender argued.
Spirits? I thought, but, technically. Turning my arm to lightning, I waved to the scarred prince, greeting him with a cheery, "Yo!"
The shocked expression on the teen's face made the older man glance back, see my electric limb, blink, and add, "Indeed. As I was saying, perhaps we should be greeting this Spirit, instead of attacking him? And perhaps, greeting his companion?"
Zuko glanced back the way I'd come, grit his teeth, and then slumped, abandoning his balanced stance and standing fully, waving defeatedly, "Fine, whatever!"
"Hey, Mina, fighting's over!" I called out, and, as she poked her pink head out of the doorway, and, glancing over, the Prince took a step back, clearly unnerved, but the young man looked our way, and, seeing Iroh just looked smugly pleased, merely shook his head in disgust.
Mina, meanwhile, gasped, and came skating over to me, and yelled, "Sparky! You're hurt!"
"I'll heal, and most of it was my own fault," I reassured her, the girl dashing over to get close and check my injuries. "Reached beyond my grasp, like I did before. Only less, so with less, you know…"
"Almost dying!?" she demanded, creating a bit of acid to wipe my face off, revealing I'd bled from the corners of my eyes as well. Again. Whups.
"Yeah, way less of that," I tried to joke, but it fell flat as she looked at me worriedly. "And better to figure out my reflexes in a spar than a real fight," I stated.
Nodding, Iroh agreed sagaciously, "It is better to bleed a little in safety, than to lose it all on the field of battle. Onto more pleasant matters, I must say, I have not met a Spirit quite so beautifully striking in appearance before, young lady. I am General Iroh, of the Fire Nation, and you would be?"
"Oh, I'm Mina Ashido!" the girl smiled. "And I'm this big lug's partner! But, uh, Spirit?"
"Are you saying that we don't come from another world, with strange ways and stranger abilities?" I questioned wryly.
Blinking black-and-gold eyes, my lover tapped a finger to her chin. "Huh, I guess we are. That's, like, so weird!"
"What about my life isn't," I countered with a smirk.
Rolling her eyes, she smacked me on the shoulder, and glanced over, stiffening as she spotted Zuko. "Oh, Honey, what happened to you?"
The Prince bristled, and I held up a hand, asking Iroh, "Ozai, right?" At the older man's nod, I told my lover, "I'll explain later. It's… complicated."
The heroine struggled with that, before finally nodding, shooting me a look that promised we would be talking about this, but she was willing to let it go for now.
The old Firebender standing beside us cleared his throat. "If I may be bold as to ask, Ms. Ashido, what brought the two of you two our humble vessel?"
"Oh, we're, like, on vacation, and stuff!" she smiled. "Some, uh…" she glanced my way. "Some stuff happened, so we decided to take a trip! Not sure why we're here, though."
"The portal we use takes us to interesting places," I explained. "The Exiled Fire Prince's Ship, as he tries to track down the Avatar, seems to be one of them."
From the lack of reaction from either of them to that announcement, I was probably correct in that assumption, though the general's observable expression meant little, given who he was. "Ah, while I appreciate the compliment, I must say our journey has not been what one would call," the old man paused for effect, "eventful."
I started to respond, when I felt something shift in the air, below the surface of the world, outside it, and I felt myself smile, as this, too, was what I expected to happen.
"That's the thing, Iroh," I told him, as, behind me, a beam of blue light pierced the sky, coming from over the horizon, and extending up to the stars themselves, creating coronas of light, a harsh monochrome aurora borealis that cast everything in cool luminescence. "It's about to be."
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Slipping my phone out of my pocket, I created a portal on the deck of the ship, and addressed the exiled prince. "Zuko, you've been looking for the Avatar? That's where he is. Just be warned… all is likely not what it seems. Now if you'll excuse us, I think it's best we go, and leave you to your work."
The scarred teen was gazing at the light with surprise, and an undisguised hope that looked… odd on his features, his scarred eye set in permanent squinting glare, before he looked to me. "This, this is your doing?"
"Nope, just right time, right place," I informed him cheerfully. "Mina?"
"See you guys later!" my girlfriend wished, sliding over to the portal.
Iroh gave her a half bow, "It was most interesting to meet you. Both of you. And I look forward to doing so when we have more time to talk."
"Oh, like, totally!" she agreed, glancing my way, and, when I waved her through, she nodded, and stepped through the portal, causing the older man's eyes to widen slightly.
On my end, I finished the Creation of my 'glove', discarding it, and took a moment to Create a glass vial containing the neutralizing agent for the Containment Foam, unable to visualize a spray-bottle top, so I just sealed it with wax instead. Handing it to Iroh, he accepted it gently, and at his inquisitive look I informed him, "This will get rid of the obstruction I created, to make sure we weren't interrupted."
"I had wondered," the 'Dragon of the West' noted, nodding slightly. For a moment, the veteran general and ex-crown prince hesitated, before, glancing at his nephew, the teen still staring at the slowly fading skybeam, the old man questioned, quietly, "You think he can do it?"
"I know he can, but capturing the Avatar is merely step one," I replied, getting a grudging nod from the Fire Lord's brother. "See you later."
"Indeed," was Iroh's only response, as I passed through the portal myself.
Exiting the other side, Mina was waiting for me, and I relaxed, only to almost collapse, as waves of soul-deep fatigue slammed into me, and would've forced me to my knees if my lover hadn't caught me.
"Sparky!" she shouted, able to hold me up, and, after a moment, just taking me off my feet completely in a princess carry, her Acid providing extra lift and support. "Are you okay? You said you were fine!"
"I, I am," I replied, even as my vision swam, slurring my words a little as I added, "Not physical. Something else. Sorry."
The woman supporting me sighed, "Oh, Sparky, that's, it's not your fault. I, I thought you were better."
I laughed weakly, "That's the thing, I, I am, I just… I burned through my reserves a little. I can put on a performance, sure, after…" I chuckled, then winced, the feeling of strain even worse. "Hey, Mina, guess what?"
"What?" she asked, with a little trepidation, skating up the stairs and bringing us to our house proper, carefully putting me down on a couch, maneuvering me so my head was in her lap, clearly wanting to do something, but unsure of what to do.
"I'm like All Might now," I mused, having long told her about the man's mustering of his limited resources.
"S-Sparky, you said he was burning out," she stated worriedly. "Are… Are you?"
I shook my head, feeling a little nauseous as I did so. "N-no. I don't think so. I'm just… exhausted, in every sense of the word. Do, do you mind if I just lie here?"
While her own smile, as she looked down at me, was a little fragile, the woman I loved reassured me, "Of course it's fine. We can stay like this as long as you want."
I closed my eyes, and felt her gentle touch as she ran her fingers through my hair, relaxing, hoping I'd done the right thing.
But either way, I was with Mina, so it was going to be alright.
Music
Ohfuck! - Agni Kai - Avatar: The Last Airbender Soundtrack
Soul-deep fatigue - Boku No Hero Academia [Original Soundtrack] - "Mu kosei no kunō" (Mukosei Anguish)
AN: As usual, the next four chapters are up on and Subscribestar!