Chapter 6 - chapter 6

They tried, really tried, but he was too fast. Running with the same speed from his Chidori attack. The furthest one soon was struck by orange lightning, but his leg was cut clean off by a blade, the next lost his arm, one cut in half at the waist, it kept going, an orange lightning strike happening each time. Until the one who led the party of kidnappers was the last one standing. Andrew smiled, and I knew exactly what was about to happen.

"Good news, you haven't died yet!" He sheathed his blades, and summoned some of the rain around his arms. "Heh, yet."

I looked around, everywhere he stepped was a burnt boot print in the ground. I knew he was working on mastering that speed but could never figure it out. It took him months to get the lightning blade technique with his tango, but he was fully using it with his dual blades right now. I know he has a limit far less than this, or at least that was the case before. And now he's about to have a fight he'd probably been dreaming of since he was a kid: fight a firebender as a waterbender. But this guy has been sparring against other elementals. Andrew only studied the styles of bending based on the Avatar: The Last Airbender show and watches it religiously. This is a fight most people would lose, but he's always struggled and loves a challenge. This guy stands no chance. 

"I'm only going to use my bending. You may use whatever you want," he said. As I looked around, the sun was nearly fully setting. And it's a full moon. "Do you wish to face me?" 

The fire guy got into his stance, "Whenever you're ready," he said. Andrew smiled, charging in. The fire guy threw fire blasts, Andrew blocked them with his arms and got close enough to sweep his leg, then got a punch in the chest as he was falling. 

"Oh yeah brother," Nick said, "show him who the Orange Flash is!" 

"What did you just call him?" I asked, as the fire guy dusuracted Andrew with a fire blast and jumped away. 

"He was like an Orange Flash a few seconds ago. Perfect title for the leader of the demon resistance."

"Oh yeah, you're right. He's totally badass right now." The fire guy kept his distance with a constant flame thrower. Andrew tried charging, but almost got burnt. 

(Andrew's perspective)

Here I am, fighting a bender. Fighting for my brothers. It's a challenge I'm loving and almost losing. But this is my secret, almost losing against an impossible threat, then winning to emerge stronger. Besides, I fought him earlier, going easy to learn his style, also when it's for my brothers my strength doubles every time. Now it's my game, a sparring match to sharpen my edge. I charged, throwing punches. With each punch, an ice shard formed and was sent flying at the flame. This made a chemical reaction between extreme heat and extreme cold, a smoke screen. I used it to get in close, and blasted him with a water blast so strong it passed him, and ripped the bark off the tree behind him before he even hit it. If not for his black biking armor, the main  reason I recognized him from earlier, he would've been severely hurt or killed. He got to his feet, and completely changed his attack. What he didn't know is, I recognized it. He used his middle and index fingers, making circles in the air with them, and lightning followed. Knowing exactly what to do next, I dropped my water and got ready. He launched it at me, and I caught it in my right hand, then used my left to guide the energy up my arm, through my stomach, carefully avoiding my heart, and pointed my left hand, releasing it at him. He dodged, but the shock from the blast launched him into a tree, and I heard a snap. He screamed, holding his arm. He'd broken his shoulder. 

"How," he said, breathing heavily and grunting with the pain, "how did you know to do that?"

"Fire rises with the sun. Water rises with the moon, and while lightning is a fire bending technique, waterbenders are what inspired lightning redirection."

"Where did you learn this information?"

"A TV show. Never thought the knowledge would be useful until I gained these abilities. Anyways, any last words?" I asked, walking over.

"You're just going to kill me?"

"No. You can work for me. Believe it or not, I can heal you. So long as you pass this one test. Was it your call to kidnap them?"

He looked up at me, I could tell he was too terrified to lie. "It was the leader, he saw your group and said to pick out the weakest links. He caused you to crash, said to bring back at least two of you."

"Ok, your life is yours. This last question will determine the rank I give you. Were you against the order?"

"I was one of the few who wanted to argue, but he had bloodbenders as you may call them on his side. I didn't stand a chance. The other two died as soon as they said a word."

"I'm sorry about your shoulder," I said, using my healing to at the very least stop the pain, "Second Lieutenant."

"I understand, you were making a point for your brothers in a time like this. I would do the same for mine, if they were still with me. And thanks for the rank."

"I'm sorry, man. But hey, mine are waiting on me. We'll be right back to heal you, ok?"

"No problem."

I ran right to them with my lightning step, and gave them a tight hug. "My boys! Are you ok?" I asked through tears. 

"We're ok, but you're breaking our backs man," Alex wheezed.

I pulled away. "I'm so glad you guys are fine, but we have a new friend who needs our help."

"How bad?" Nick asked. They've healed wounds before with their waterbending, but I was the only one able to heal bones.

"His shoulder is broken in at least two places."

"Oh, man. You can heal it right?"

"I'm kinda on the verge of what I can only guess is an adrenaline crash. I know you guys haven't practiced healing broken bones yet, but I know you can do this. At least, with my help."

"What are we waiting on, then?" Alex asked, "let's do it!"

I helped them to their feet and we walked back to our new friend. "Alright, just sit still," I called some more water to my hands, my brothers doing the same, "we're at the very least gonna get your bone halfway healed. Within 4 to 24 hours, you should be good as new. By the way, I never got your name. I'm Andrew, and this is Nick and Alex."

"I'm Joshua," he answered.

"Why a weird time limit?" Nick asked as we got to work.

"I'm feeling pretty weak from testing my power all day. Also, this is a pretty serious wound. Most cases it could take up to half a year to heal. You're lucky you hit your arm, if it were your back you would likely be paralyzed. I've never even attempted to fix a spinal, so let's hope I don't have to anytime soon."

"That's reassuring, so am I gonna have to expect physical therapy?"

"Maybe," I said, focusing on loosening up the broken ends of the bone so I could mend them back together, "up to two weeks if anything." Alex and Nick were working on the lower part, less fragile than the upper part. I could tell they were already ahead of me. I'd barely gotten it attached so far and my vision already felt a little weaker, but I kept it going for a few moments longer. The bone started mending together, and was at the halfway point when I had to stop. 

"Ok," I said, "be careful with it. Alex, make a sling or something to help him, I'm gonna scout the area." I walked off after that to catch my breath, but everything went black all of a sudden.

(Alex's perspective)

"Shit, guys!" Nick said, pointing at Andrew. He was on the ground, passed out. "He fell over!" Nick got up and ran over, I followed.

"He can't be dead. He's too stubborn to be dead," I hoped.

"I know. He's been through worse, Alex," my brother checked his pulse as I checked his breath, "Remember the time he tried taking on that giant squid with just his spear?"

"And came back with three broken fingers, almost had a concussion, etc."

"Yet he went back again a week later, and when he returned he didn't have a single scratch on him. The squid didn't stand a chance." I felt his breath on my hand, and the goosebumps went away. He's fine.

"He's alive." I looked up with a sigh of relief.

(Andrew's perspective)

I must've passed out after turning around, because all I can remember is having a weird ass vision. I saw Taylor's group fighting Kappa (Japanese turtle demons known for stealing soils through people's butts), he was leading like a badass with a katana that was pure white. It glowed like a lightsaber in the darkness, and he used his machete which was pitch black as a secondary blade that they couldn't see. But my vision went past that, I saw myself fighting relentlessly. I got a glimpse of some big red demon with pitch black angel wings as my enemy. Then it changed again, and I saw a pit. I sensed a presence lurking, it was huge and felt like a pure manifestation of evil and darkness. There was no way we'd fight this on our own. I needed to contact the base, we needed backup to finish this mission.

Finally, I woke up in a cold sweat being dragged by the boys, we were just passing McDonald's. That meant our destination was a half hour run. "Good morning," I said checking my watch. It was 1 or 2 am as far as I can remember, and they stopped.

"Dude!" Alex yelled. "We thought u were in a coma you're such a deep sleeper!" He gave me a hug, same for my other brother.

"We wouldn't be alive without you," Nick said.

"Hey it was nothing," I said as they helped me up, "besides, I should thank you guys. If not for the inspiration y'all give me, I wouldn't have half the guts to do any of that back there."

"So what's up?"

"We need backup," I grabbed my walkie and hit the button. "This is Andrew Carter to home base. Does anybody copy? Over."

Silence.

"Does anybody copy? Tris?"

Silence again.

"Lane? Mom? Dad? Anybody?"

Nothing.

Alex put his hand on my shoulder, "hey, maybe whoever has the walkie forgot to turn it on."

"Maybe. But, how are we gonna get through this?"

"Hello?" We heard a voice call out in the distance.

"Andrew," Nick looked at me, and I knew what he was asking. I closed my eyes and focused, and what I could sense was a surprise.

"Guys," I said, "we have allies. A whole group, about an 8th of a mile away."

"Is anyone there?" It sounded familiar, and I got my hopes up.

"Hello?" I called back, as our group walked in that direction.

"Who's there?" They asked

"Just a group of travelers! We don't want any unnecessary trouble with humans!"

We got to a clearing, the group on the other side. I ran across to greet them before my people got too close, and their leader did, too.

"Andrew?!" She recognized me in the moonlight, and I knew her too.

"No way! I knew you'd survive!" I yelled as I gave my old friend a hug. "How are you, how's it been?"

"Ok for the apocalypse, but better now that you're here."

"Dude," my brothers approached.

"Mary?" Alex asked.

"Hell yeah," she answered. Mary is an old friend of ours, and one of our favorite stoner buddies. "Andrew, tell me you got some Mary Jane."

"Don't worry, I'll figure that out. So, I guess I know almost everyone here?"

"Pretty much."

"Alright then," I turned. There must've been at least 35 of them, all armed and ready to fight. "Everyone, we have a small task force of only 6 other people and are on the way to the closest demon stronghold in the area. But it's big, and we're going to need help."

"I'm going," said Mary, "anyone who isn't can go wherever they want."

"My base is six flags. If any of you wish for a guaranteed safe place, you may start making your way there. But if you wish to be legends in the first attempt of a demon base, and tomorrow you will officially be the first members of my personal task force focused on major demon activity."

"That sounds good," a distant voice said. It was Christian Kenway, quite possibly my oldest true friend.

"Ride or die missions with you every day bro?" Asked Kyle, another good friend of ours who was a huge cyber security genius. "Hell yeah!" With that, most of the crowd cheered. I figured if they survived comfortably this long just hiking about, they're the most qualified for a mission like this.

"We leave immediately, be ready to jog." I turned to my original group. "Josh, with me in the back, Alex and Nick up front."

"Why us in the back?" Josh asked.

"I'm the fastest, my everyone goes first so I can keep an eye to ensure their safety. Besides, if something were to come from the front I'll still see and be there with my flash step before anything happens. And if something comes from behind, I'll most likely sense it with the force long before it's a threat."