A Joke
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🕑 Added 2022-02-04 13:57:13 +0000 UTCChapter 111 - A New Monster is Born
***
Azula walked through the roads of Ba Sing Se as if she owned them. Arrogance seeped through her, which made it clear to everyone she was not an average girl. The clothes she wears are green, like those of a standard but well-dressed civilian. But her demeanor, on the other hand, was all noble.
It made Mai anxious. She has no idea what Azula was doing and just followed along. Azula didn't share her plans with anyone. Kuzon had orchestrated her disappearance with the ship crash, which bought them enough time. So Azula hadn't had to go and meet Ozai after her failure to take the Northern Water Tribe.
'Now she wants to kill Ozai? I wonder whose idea that was? Is Azula even thinking this through or just following along with Kuzon, and nowadays he seems like the only one she trusts. Who even wants this? Kuzon or Azula? Both?'
The friend that Mai has known for a long time, had now grown unfamiliar to her.
…
Such casual behavior lasted until the sunset. As they walked through a busy street, no one was around, and Mai felt a chill crawl up her spine. She could tell something wasn't right here, as people should be walking around. At least one person.
But it was all empty. Azula sighed in resignation and put her hand up. "I give up. You can take me to the prison now."
"What?!!" Mai finally exploded, unable to handle the reckless actions Azula was doing. There was no order to them, no plans or goal was in sight. "Are you craz-"
Her words got stuck in her throat as she saw dozens of Dai Li in their dark green uniforms come out. But Mai was mistaken because as she glanced toward the roofs of the houses, she felt her heart stop. Hundreds of Dai Li had surrounded them. All of them were creepily quiet and skilled, their eyes expressing a sense of assassin-like coldness and indifference.
What are they supposed to do now?
Blue flames glittered in Azula’s hands. No, it wasn’t flames, but without needing excessive movement, lightning crackled in her hands. Pointing her fingers towards the biggest bundle of Sai Li, an earth wall rose, big enough as a two-story house, but what could it do?
BOOOM!!
The wall exploded, countless shackles of earth were thrown at her.
She spun, generating flames from her hands, the rotation creating a pillar around herself and her friends. Mai was surprised at how much control Azula had over her fire. But that surprise didn’t stop her from throwing projectiles and stopping the attacks that got past Azula’s flames, since they were charred, the earth projectiles were also easier to break.
“Don’t tire yourself out too much,” Azula whispered to her friends. “When the time comes, we need to be captured. Make it look like we’re giving it our all too.”
After that, Azula took a deep breath and another thing happened that surprised Mai. Azula had crackling lighting in both her hands. This wasn’t something she had thought possible, since as a noble Mai knew the mechanics between lighting generation, and doing something like this looked crazy.
Fwish! Fwish!
But something unbelievable happened next, something that defied the common senses of firebending. Azula swung her hands, creating a lightning whip. She had never even thought such a thing was possible. You can’t control lighting, firebenders can simply generate it. That was an absolute rule.
But as she swung the lightning whips, it cut right through some earth and destroyed all of the earth projectiles in the air.
‘Why are we even here? With her like this, we will only get in the way.’ - Mai contemplated but decided to keep her distance from Azula so she wouldn't get zapped. She went and helped Ty Lee who already had taken down some Dai Li with her Chi Blocking.
…
Broken houses, upturned roads, over a hundred downed Dai Li lay on the charred ground. Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee stood in the middle of all that, sweat running down their cheeks as they breathed heavily. Still, hundreds of more Dai Li stood amongst the houses, but even though the girls were tired, they were afraid to approach. Even though they still had an overwhelming numbers advantage against them. But the cooperation between the girls was flawless, covering for each other’s weaknesses.
“What a monstrous girl,” muttered one of the Dai Li while looking at Azula. She had shown something so crazy, most of the Dai Li was on the ground because of her. One-touch of her lightning whip graze and you were done.
“She’s not human.”
“Crazy.”
Such a monster, they didn’t want to fight her, they couldn’t approach them even though she was tired and her friends tired too. After such an intensive fight, their stamina was running to the brink of extreme exhaustion. But no Dai Li had the heart to approach, because the next one who did so will undoubtedly die.
“What? Are you scared of some little girls?” Azula mocked them. Unlike before, when she was ruthless to show her power to others, and be overbearing. That wasn’t true power, this was the true power and she felt a new sense of high. Even after claiming herself as a weak girl, the enemy didn’t dare approach.
Was this how Kuzon felt when he said he was just another normal guy? She can understand why he does something like this, it’s very entertaining. “C’mon, I am so tired I can barely lift my body. So why aren’t you doing your duty and taking me prisoner.”
Her crazy, fiery gaze stopped everyone in her tracks. Even Mai and Ty Lee who were next to her felt nervous about Azula’s actions. She generated an overwhelming, invisible pressure.
The earth below her suddenly croaked, and it engulfed her body within an instant, two big men, who due to their clothes and medals showed that they were Earth Kingdom Generals. Ty Lee and Mai also got captured similarly.
“Tch, I thought the Dai Li are elite forces, with such a shameful showing, how do you think anyone will trust you again?” one of the generals snorted in disdain. He didn’t like Long Feng and his unit, but Azula was causing too much of a ruckus.
“Maybe Long Feng needs to be taken down a notch, as he has shown to be too arrogant,” the other General commented.
Seeing this discord, Azula had to try hard to keep a smile from appearing on her face.
***
At the same time, in Gaoling, in an underground cave. Sokka stood amongst a dozen bodies, blood dripping from his clenched fists. Xin Fu and his wrestlers were amongst those people, blood spilling out of their mouths and eyes rolled to the back of their heads.
“You’re quite violent,” Sokka said as he took out a white cloth from his pocket and wiped his fists, turning the cloth red. Glancing at Xin Fu, he smirked. “But I am quite the violent guy myself.”
Only groans of pain responded to his words, as no one amongst his victim-... opponents spoke up. A beast-like ruthless aura was after that innocent smile Sokka hid behind. “By the way, what do you guys think about fighting against the Fire Nation? Your earthbending is quite good and unpredictable, it would take the Fire Nation soldiers by surprise.”
Once again, no one spoke and there was only silence. Even if any of them could gather the strength to speak, they weren’t stupid enough to speak in rebuttal.
“That’s good, then I will take your silence as a yes,” and with that, he walked off. The conscious people felt weird due to his behavior. After all, what if they ran away? Would Sokka make such a simple mistake? Everyone wondered. Still, they were relieved and some were already prepared to run away, as soon as today.
“Oh,” Sokka turned around as if he just remembered something. “If you run away, I will hunt you down like dogs.”
He left the money he had bet here as if enticing them to take the money and run away.
…
Outside of the Earth Rumble tournament, June was waiting for Sokka, she wanted to accompany him to the tournament but he told her to take care of something while he did that. She wasn’t that worried about him in the Earth Rumble because as a spectator he would just have to stand around and at most scream out a cheer if he wanted.
But as she saw Sokka walk out the entrance, smelling the air, she could smell blood and her heart immediately stopped. Sokka looked normal and smiled at her reassuringly.
‘Why am I even worrying about this guy?’ - June didn’t know the answer to that predicament. Maybe she felt pity towards him, or maybe it felt like such a shame a talented guy like him who also helped orphans would die so soon.
She didn’t say anything and just went and interlocked her arm with his and nudged him to lean on her. He smiled playfully and leaned on her, and she accepted it. Sokka’s eyes widened in surprise at how she let him do that so easily, but he went along with it.
…
Among the shopping streets of Gaoling. Katara walked around with Aang beside her, and Kiwi sitting atop her head. She was looking around for anyone to ask if there were any good earthbenders around. Sokka was usually the one who did the talking, but now that duty had fallen to her, as Aang was too nice for anyone to take him seriously.
Suddenly, she caught sight of something, her brother, Sokka interlocking arms with a cold-faced woman and leaning on her. Through her eyes and face said that she would kill anyone who got close to her, but Sokka seemed relaxed too.
First Suki, then Yue, and now this girl. This one even seemed to be in her 20s and not even someone close to his age. So Katara now understood that even girls who at least should be aware of his ways still fell for them.
“This guy…” Katara strode toward him.
