Chapter 90 – Chaos of War

Nuwa hangs on her glider and approaches the second airship to take off. There’s various chaotic air currents in the wake of the first airship’s flight path on the way to the second airship. She would have had to grapple with these, but the elemental node seems to smooth her airbender gliding course towards her destination. The pilots on the airship see a Fire Nation soldier on a hot-pink colored glider approaching them.

These early models of airship do not have air-to-air weaponry. So the pilot can do nothing but bemoan their fate as Nuwa casually lands on top of their ship and pokes holes in it. Nuwa doesn’t have the muscles to make the initial stab with her hidden blade, so she has to jump up and launch herself back onto the ship with an air blast. She also has to use airblasts to push her along to rip apart the metal. Even though the blade is sharp, she lacks upper body strength to tear up metal. She doesn’t have the momentum of the earlier massive air blast.

She quickly makes a 2m (6.5 ft) square hole in the top of the airship with 4 air blasts and uses an air shield to defend herself against the upswell of superheated air that ejects the rest of the metal square off its hinges. This ship is going down quite a bit faster than the other one. She makes another running leap onto the next one. At this point, Nuwa is running a bit low on chi, despite the boost in reserves and consumption that the elemental node provides.

Nuwa lands on the roof of the third airship, uses her hidden blade to make a stab from her dive, and squeezes out another airblast to lengthen the cut, but rests after that single cut. The cut is very smooth with almost no air escaping. She takes this moment to get a breather and looks around at the first two airships.

The soldiers on the second airship steer the airship into the harbor because they are losing too much altitude. They also throw all of their explosives out without lighting them, because they don’t want to accidentally get blown up. The second airship goes down faster than the first, with the soldiers jumping into the water before it lands and getting swallowed by the following wave of its landing. It’s a big wave, but they are fit enough to survive a bit of splashing around. The first airship is still going down very slowly and has made it above the harbor where the main battlefield is. Nuwa suspects that they intend to land the airship on top of the subs and destroy a few. It won’t make much of a difference to the fight. They are empty now and are only for retreat purposes.

Nuwa sighs when she sees various smoke pillars are spread throughout the city, a result of firebenders causing collateral damage to property. There will be a lot of burnt buildings and bodies when this is over. She knows of it, but she is not mentally prepared to hear the screams from earlier. By now, Nuwa suspects that Azula, Aang, Zuko, and June have already found Ozai. She gets up and completes the same quadrilateral cuts she did on the second airship on the third.

When Nuwa turns to look at the fourth airship, she finds it’s flying straight up and away from the battlefield. “Heh, you guys aren’t so dumb after all. Nevertheless, it’s useless.” Nuwa jumps into the air and coasts into a glide for a bit as she looks up at the airship. Then, she transforms it back into a wand, upon which she uses firebending thrusters to rocket herself upwards into the air. The pilots on the fourth ship watch her cut the third and seem to forget that the Avatar, who they are mistaking her as, can bend all the elements. Or maybe they think the Avatar is young and hasn't learned firebending yet.

Nuwa smirks and returns her wand to a glider after raising her altitude above the airship. She coasts onto it and stabs into it from her dive. She cannot use fire thrusters to make cuts because that might dislocate or snap her bones. Nuwa’s body can only conduct earth chi through it. She cannot harden her own body with earth chi like Toph or Bumi. The only part of her body with superhuman strength are her genitals. She’s a Sex Daoist after all.

She rests for a while again before completing the same cut on the fourth ship to finish her mission. Once she has confirmed that the pilot isn’t trying to be “an hero”, she glides off towards the royal palace, where she assumes a grueling fight has begun.

~ ~ ~

Azula, Aang, Zuko, and June are waiting in the sub. There’s two minutes until they land. Aang and June are the most nervous. Sozin’s genes in Zuko and Azula make them right at home in warzones.

One minute away from landing, the operators fire the ice torpedoes at the unoccupied boats on the docks. These boats can be manned at any time and contain plenty of weapons. The aim of this invasion is to not only to overthrow Ozai, but also to destroy as much of the Fire Nation’s war potential as possible. This will help convince the public and the militants to end the war and that continuing it would be too costly to both sides.

Several explosions ring out as the subs stop and shoot down as many ships on the harbor as they can before traveling the rest of the distance to the harbor and sliding up onto the ice. Tanks exit from the hatch of other submarines, but Nyla jumps out of Azula’s sub, carrying the four of them directly into thin alleyways to avoid the crossfire.

Earthbender-powered tanks roll up along the docks and power through the streets, destroying any vehicle or miscellaneous obstacle along the way by rolling them over.

The response from the Fire Nation military is fast, but there’s not too many people awake at the moment, so when two dozen earthbenders pour out of two tanks, earth blasts outnumber fire blasts in the fog of war.

Sokka has gained the allegiance of the Southern Water Tribe and hence has divided command of their fighters in three ways. His father, Hakoda, will command the main force, Sokka will do the second, and Yue will do the third. Once the old non-benders heard that Sokka had snagged the princess of the North, they all immediately showered the couple with praise and treated Yue like a real Tribal chief’s wife. She was also one of their tickets to repopulating the Southern Water Tribe with waterbenders, so even though they held resentment against the Northern Water Tribe for not helping, they doted on her to an extreme extent.

Yue will be devastated if any of them are hurt in the war, but she knows that liberation and revenge are what drive them. They put on cheerful faces only for her and Sokka. Hakoda and Sokka specifically posted her as the leader of the third unit so that the whole Tribe gets the message that there should be no brutality of the Fire Nation citizenry. It’s a neat special move called ‘Super fluff-fluff, fairy dust falls from the moon!’ where no one can do evil things when Yue is around or they’ll feel ashamed of themselves for attempting to corrupt such a pure-hearted bunny.. err.. woman.

Huu enters the battlefield as a giant mass of tentacle vines with legs destroying navy ships. The benders spread out and help him destroy as many navy ships as they can, while attempting to minimize damage to private boats. Huu doesn’t care or know the difference. He’s a bit of a hick, so he just does what he’s told by Sokka. The metal ones are harder for him to wrap his tentacles around and rip in two though. The troops on both sides feel their bums tighten up when the tentacles pass or approach them. A few firebenders run for their lives. Most of them would gladly sacrifice their anal virginity if it meant helping their Nation though.

Nothing ends up happening. Huu makes the vines squeeze them a bit, string them up until the blood rushes to their heads, and finally drop them in neat piles once they are unconscious. He does this to nearly four people at once three times before the military get their act together and realize that fire beats plants. They start spamming fire blasts at the vines, which catch on fire and cause Huu to have to eject water from other vines to put out the fires. It’s not a sustainable cycle, so Huu retreats back to the harbor for a regular supply of water and help with defense.

The Northern Water Tribe waterbenders primarily stay near the harbor facing off against the ceaseless supply of reinforcements, while the earthbenders and Dai Li head into the city to make targeted strikes on factories.

Gunner is glad to be back with his crew, despite how easily he left them. Some things, one doesn’t appreciate unless one has suffered loss. For example, people who understand his speech. Only his crew and Bumi can. The others attempt to and can grasp a few words here and there, but it’s overall a fruitless endeavor. “YARRHAR MATEys. PILLAGE N’ BORN!”

Yue looks over at Gunner and furrows her brows at the barbaric display, but they’re surprisingly tame for pirates. It doesn’t look like they have any clue how to be pirates, actually. The ugly crewmate with a tumor on his face is even helping a blind old lady cross the street while fire and earth blasts whiz all around. The battle takes place on a main thoroughfare that leads directly through the main street towards the military barracks and Royal Palace later on. Yue shrugs and decides to use her special move elsewhere for the other naughtier bandits that they brought.

One earthbender bandit tears off a running noble lady's dress in the excitement of battle and looks like he’s going to continue, until he gets a water splash to the back of his head and sees Yue with her arms akimbo. Her special move takes effect. He looks down at his hands, the frightened lady, and finally drops to his knees in shame at how horrible of a person he is to think of taking advantage of an innocent passerby. “AHHH.. WHO HAVE I BECOME? I NEED MY MOMMY!”

Yue walks off and pats herself on the back at a job well done. The noble lady looks at Yue with stars in her eyes and follows her, forgetting to run away. She wants to learn that trick! Unfortunately, Yue shoos her away. Meanwhile, Sokka and the Southern Water Tribe fighters are working overtime to block fire blasts from landing near Yue. Her special move shines too brightly and attracts attention!

Sokka yells, “Yue! Let’s get off the main roads!” Yue looks around and agrees. It’s too crowded on the main thoroughfare. The Southern Water Tribe fighters group up with the Kyoshi warriors after they turn onto an alley and they start searching for factories or soldiers to take out. Sokka stares at Suki for a few seconds to which she snorts in contempt. Yue looks innocently between the two and asks, “Do you know her?”

How is Sokka supposed to explain that he and Suki had a brief crush on each other? Suki was still under the belief that Sokka and her were long-distance dating until Aang and Katara came to catch her up. The two had never made their relationship clear since the time they spent together was so short. He only got a kiss on the cheek from Suki when he left. For Suki that meant they were dating, but for Sokka, he thought it was a pity gesture.

Aang explained the misunderstanding to Sokka before they got in the subs. Sokka didn’t know how to feel about that. He is already happily in love with Yue, but he still likes Suki. If possible, he’d date them both, but he’s not confident in convincing the headstrong Suki to share, and neither does he think he deserves more considering he already has his goddess-tier wife, Yue.

Sokka replies to Yue, “Yeah, we’re old friends.”

Yue feels like Sokka is slower in his reply than usual, and suspects there is some history of some kind, but doesn’t push him since now’s not the time. They run through the alleys in the direction of the barracks. By now, the forces have split into three groups.

The earthbenders, mostly bandits and soldiers, are going down the main road.

The Southern Water Tribe and Kyoshi warriors are traveling through alleys to the west of the road. The Dai Li and Gunner’s crew are traveling through alleys on the east of the road.

The Northern Water Tribe are defending the invasion vehicles and creating a makeshift ice fortress on the docks. It is periodically damaged by cannonballs, ballistae shots, and trebuchets, but the weapons are destroyed by Huu and Pakku soon after, giving time for the waterbenders to rebuild the ice walls. This ice fortress will serve as a forward base for their invasion team to rest, recuperate, eat, and stay safe if the invasion goes over three hours of fighting. It’s been less than an hour since the start so far. The normal soldiers will have to rest and calm their nerves after two hours at most and then start to swap out or else they’ll be overrun by fresh reinforcements.

Overall, the Northern Water Tribe ice fortress is the most gruesome area of the fighting. There’s men with limbs dangling off their bodies sealed shut by ice. There’s men with terrible burns that no amount of healing can save. They need Pakku and Huu because they’re facing the majority of the hostile firepower. The military much prefers to use war weaponry against the ice fortress than into the alleyways where there could be innocent citizenry, despite how much Ozai might want them to. For the Fire Nation soldiers, many of them have family in this city, so the thought of firing trebuchets upon their own family scares them half to death.

~ ~ ~

Lady Pea wakes up to the sound of the torpedoes and smiles gleefully at the impending downfall of that Zata bastard! She shakes Lord Pea awake and looks longingly out the window knowing her oddball is out there. The Pea residence is located near the Royal Palace, so they are far from the fighting for now. She sends for her maids and servants to call for her family guards and troops. They now have an excuse to recall all Pea forces back to the mansion.

Once she’s done cleaning up, preparing her makeup, and dressing elegantly, the sounds of fighting are already halfway to the Royal Palace and the guards are assembled in the family courtyard. Lord Pea is only now starting to clean up. He’s still tired from all the running around he did last night trying to get friends of his to get out of the city temporarily with believable excuses.

Lady Pea marches to a balcony overlooking her courtyard with full noble lady regalia, including her Fire Nation headpiece in her topknot. The chi-blocker troops were at attention and lined up calmly. She says, “Today, we defend our home from the invaders. It’s a dark day in Fire Nation history! For additional security, all of you are to bide your strength and not leave the Pea mansion premises in case rioters or opportunists seek to take advantage of the chaos! I can sense this will be a prolonged conflict..”

Obviously, Lady Pea is bullshitting in superb fashion making excuses for not helping the City fend off the attack. A few other Noble houses are secretly doing the same with half their troops. None would go so far as to withhold all of them like the Peas. The squad leaders of the chi-blockers also realize this and are confused at the borderline treasonous orders, but somehow rationalize that they make sense when they see Lady Pea’s unswervingly confident demeanor.

Inwardly, Lady Pea is sweating bullets because their family’s fate is on the line. She’s never played this huge of a con before. It makes all the veiled insults and jabs at tea parties look like a walk in the park. Nevertheless, she channels her love for her baby girl, Nuwa, and her hatred for those pricks, the Zata Lord and Mistress, to pull through.

Lord Pea also bursts out onto the balcony in barely professional garb and says, “I concur! Even if they beat us to our last breath, we will snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!”

Lady Pea smacks him upside the head and clarifies, “All of us will protect our home to ensure we are nowhere near the jaws of defeat!”

The chi-blocker squads are entirely confused, but they get to work on impromptu fortifications for the courtyard. These are all unnecessary because Azula plants a small pink flag on the gate of the mansion while passing by so that the invasion force only fake attacks at them.

~ ~ ~

Nyla bounds through the alleys after stopping by the Pea Mansion. They approach the Royal Palace from behind and Nyla claws as she jumps as high as she can up the wall. She isn’t going to be able to make the jump until Aang and Azula give her a boost with an air blast and a fire thruster respectively. Lightly landing inside the back of the Fire Nation palace’s courtyard, Nyla paces about to reorient her senses and dashes off towards the Main Palace.

Azula thinks to herself, ‘He’s exactly where he’s supposed to be.’

An old man puts down his tea and walks near the path of the bounding Shirshu before hopping on. Nyla whimpers at the excessive weight of Iroh’s body. Zuko pats his shoulder and says, “Good to see you again, Uncle.”

Azula asks with a bit of worry, “How are you, Uncle?”

Iroh replies with a life lesson instead. “You must never give into despair. Allow yourself to slip down that road, and you surrender to your lowest instincts. In the darkest times, hope is something you give yourself. That is the meaning of inner strength.” (quote direct from canon)

“I was close to slipping many times. But I knew that is not what my wife would want.”

Aang feels his determination to continue his path set ablaze by Iroh’s words of wisdom. Hope is all he has left of the air nomads! It’s time to collect a debt that’s been waiting for a hundred years!

(A/N: Another long chapter. Bit grim, but hope can be found within!)