As the battle of Sogo rages on two Fire Nation spear troopers, two firebenders, and a swordsman engage two waterbenders and archers on the Western flank of the city. The waterbender on the right throws a waterball from his right hand into a spear trooper which explodes on impact as it sends the man flying.
A hot beam of water is sprayed into one of the firebenders who falls and slides on the icy surface below him. The other firebender pumps an orange blast of flames at the waterbender who raises his own ice wall that is broken from the attack. The waterbender rotates his hand and flies a ice knife into the man's heart.
A swordsman closes in and cuts down the waterbender on the right. The other waterbender turns and freezes the duelist. The Fire Nation spear warrior charges but the waterbender pulls down his right hand and three ice bricks hit the man in his neck.
The archer looks at the waterbender, "Well I guess I wasn't of that much use."
The waterbender looks at his fallen ally, "Ah, don't sweat it. Just watch my back for whoever comes next." Captain Betossi rushes across the landscape just twenty meters from the Water Tribe warriors as he rides on a fierce tiger-rhino!
Beside him are two Fire Nation soldiers on bear-leopards with dotted dark brown and yellow-gold skin. The trooper on the left has a sword and the one on the right wields a spear. Archer: "Oh yeah, I see what you mean!"
As they prepare for action, three riders buzz past them. In the center of the pack, is a spear-wielding captain named Ruye. Left of him is a spear warrior and right of him there is a waterbender. All three warriors are riding grey wolf-horses. The man on the left tilts his spear to warn the two warriors that his team will handle the situation.
The waterbender and the archer subsequently fall back after noticing the signal and the archer salutes them. The FN swordsman on a bear leopard gallops forward and his creature stands on its hind legs as it makes eye contact with the spear rider.
The buff animal slams the ground as it sends snow scattering. The bear-leopard hops toward the wolf-horse and swings at it with its claws. The wolf-horse hops backward and the Water Tribe spear warrior thrusts his weapon into the predator across him. The FN swordsman falls off his creature and the wolf-horse runs forward before it slams its front feet into the man's mouth.
The trooper's lips are immediately busted and several of his teeth are shattered. Blood pours from the man's mouth as he soars two feet back onto the snowy ground. The other bear-leopard rider advances with his spear toward the wolf-horse riding waterbender.
The waterbender extends his arms and blasts the trooper off his creature with a stream of freezing water. The animal aggressively charges at him and lunges at his animal with a horizontal right leaping swing. The wolf-horse jumps right and the waterbender shoots a surge of ice into the creature, freezing it whole.
Captain Ruye charges on his creature at Captain Betossi who extends his arms and shoots a beam of orange-yellow fire at the Sogoian officer. His wolf-horse jumps right and runs toward its opponent. Betossi slides his spear into the ground which sends a spout of snow gliding towards Betossi.
The Fire Nation officer extends his left palm and shoots a ray of flames into the snow. Betossi then punches two fireballs at Ruye who bends down under the shots. Betossi's tiger-rhino sprints and bucks Ruye's wolf-horse aside, knocking it out. In the gist of time, Ruye backflips off his animal toward Betossi.
Betossi turns and notices Ruye land directly behind him on the tiger-rhino. The FN captain wastes no time in turning around and standing up as the tiger-rhino continues to run. Ruye steps forward and pokes his spear at Betossi. The captain steps left and Ruye pulls his weapon back.
Betossi pumps two flames at Ruye but the Water Tribe officer twirls his weapon and blocks the shots. Ruye makes a calculated leap toward Betossi while performing a horizontal spinning swing. Betossi backflips behind Ruye as he does this. Ruye readjusts his stance as he faces Betossi again.
The tiger-rhino shakes its body in an attempt to knock Ruye off. Both warriors stumble towards each other as they struggle to keep their balance. Ruye steps forward and swings left at Betossi's neck. Betossi ducks but Ruye readjusts and lunges at his belly. Betossi jumps over the strike and kicks Ruye in his jaw.
Ruye head rolls back but his legs fly upward in a way that causes Betossi to stumble and both men falls off the animal. Ruye lands on his stomach and Betossi lands on his arms. Betossi's armor lessens the damage but still puts a strain on his arms. Ruye briefly loses his wind from the fall.
The tiger-rhino sights the waterbender rider and runs at him at a frightening pace. The waterbender extends his hands and hurls four ice bricks into it. The animal growls as each brick fragments into its body. The aggravated animal advances at an even greater speed.
The bender raises an ice wall, but the super predator runs right through it before it prances ahead and smacks the wolf-horse aside with a right swing. The tiger-rhino swings a second time with its right claw and swats the airborne waterbender away.
The spear rider watches in disbelief and comments, "No way." The creature charges at the spear rider. The rider lunges his spear at the beast but the predator omnivore smacks the man's spear out of his hands. The wolf-horse stands up on its hind legs, but the tiger-rhino pulls its right hand back before it pounds the creature, sending it and its rider flying.
Captain Ruye gets up with his spear and Betossi performs a flip jump back to his feet. Betossi extends his right hand and buzzes a line of fire in Ruye's direction. Ruye turns his staff horizontally which absorbs the blow. Ruye leaps at Betossi with a spinning diagonal attack but Ruye rolls past him.
Ruye repositions and Betossi directs two fireballs at him. The Water Tribe captain diagonally shifts his staff as he parries each blow. Ruye lunges at Betossi's stomach but the captain steps left then back pedals and pops another flame at Ruye which he blocks.
Betossi extends his right hand and pumps a fireball into Ruye's upper left rib. The waterbender falls on his back and drops his weapon. Betossi: "Good riddance." Betossi pushes a flame through the center of Ruye's back.
As the vicious animal looks at Betossi, Sada glides down about twelve feet across it after dissolving an incline of snow. The tiger-rhino snarls and rushes toward her at tremendous speed. Sada notices Ruye is down and pumps four large blocks of ice at the animal's front legs.
Two blocks shatter against the beast's right leg and another two shatter on its left leg. Still the predator dazes closer to the United Way warrior. The animal dives at her and Sada leaps left as the creature slams its weighty claws into the ground. The tiger-rhino repositions, as it pulls its claws out of surface.
Sada hurls two sharp ice swords into the animal's arms and it howls louder. The tiger-rhino sprints and has a leaping swing with its left arm at Sada's body. Sada launches herself with a snow blast onto the tiger-rhino's back. The creature tosses and turns side to side as it looks to knock her off.
Sada keeps a hold and uses tangency bending to make her left hand colder. Sada's left hand sticks to the animal's body like ice, preventing her from falling off. Cold from her hand transfers into the predator's body, gradually slowing it down and the movement of its red blood cells.
Sada generates an ice dagger with her right hand and stabs it several times, but it continues to spin and buck. Sada gasps, Wow, this thing's tough! Betossi pulls both of his arms back and generates a remorseless aura of orange and yellow fire. Betossi pulls out his right hand as he propels his surge of fire at Sada.
Sada hears the flames and tilts her head in his direction. She notices the fire as it is only a few feet from hitting her. In less than a second, Sada disengages her tangency bending technique and the tiger-rhino hurls her off. Sada flies five feet away and into the ground as Betossi's blaze of fire obliterates the beast.
The tiger-rhino's horn flies five feet back and slams into the ground roughly three feet across Sada's location. Sada gasps and rises to her feet. Smoke clears and she sees Betossi stand across her. Sada: "You are brutal firebender, but brutality alone will not triumph against courage, compassion, and love."
Betossi: "Still spouting the nonsense of your backward people. Might, resolve, and power is the only thing that wins wars. And existence is a war, every nation looks to be number one. Right now that's us, you want our spot, you have to be able to take it!"
Sada: "We do not want your spot. Every nation and group has its own place in natural harmony. Something you haven't discovered."
Betossi enters his battle stance, "Enough of this talk, I am not here to reason with you. My only will is to see Sogo burned to the ground. Your is to protect it. We cannot coexist, so let's see who is right."
Sada exhales, "Very well. Your move." Betossi leaps ahead with a spinning hop as he hurls a spinning sphere of fire at her. Sada pulls her right hand and shoots water into the sphere causing it to explode. Smoke scatters but Betossi leaps high throw the smoke and punches two wild flames at Sada.
Sada hurls two large snowballs into the flames and Betossi kicks an additional two flames at Sada before he lands. Sada raises an ice wall which cracks from the first fireball and pushes an ice brick into the second flame. Betossi pumps his hands together and launches a violent four-feet-wide fire rhombus at the Western Water Tribe member.
Sada flips right and left past the shot which erupts in the ground. Betossi punches another pair of flames at her ,but Sada swirls her hands causing a rotating and circular current of snowballs to collide with the flames. Sada crosses her arms and two ice swords extend from the ground.
The ice swords glide toward the left and right sides of the Fire Nation captain's body. Betossi performs a diagonally flip from the left direction past the strike and amps his legs with fire as he is spiraling in the air. Betossi flings a large circle of fire at Sada who pulls her right hand down as she generates a curved barrier of ice.
The fire ball hits the ice barrier and blows up. The ice is quickly melted and the flames spark past the barrier. Betossi smiles as he assumes Sada is harmed. However, Sada rises from a lying position about seven feet right of Betossi's position, a spot completely different than where she was before the attack.
Sada rises to her knees to not give away her location and shoots a barrage of ice knives at him. Betossi raises an eyebrow as he kicks a stream of fire into the ice. Betossi: "How did you?!"
Sada replies, "Don't get distracted." Sada hurls a spinning ball of ice at Betossi who ducks and rolls forward as it cracks a few inches behind him. Sada raises snow from the ground that is directly under Betossi's feet and pushes it toward him.
Betossi jumps over the snow and lights his feet with fire to burn and snow near him. Betossi: "You're making me work hard for this win, so I'm going to make sure you feel twice my fury." Betossi punches four missiles of fire at Sada in irritation.
Sada lifts her hands and shoots herself twelve feet in the air at 30 miles an hour from a burst of snow. As Sada descends she flies in a way that the fire missiles land and explode directly under her. The fumes from the explosion limit Betossi's vision of her so he proceeds to punch a barrage six rapid fire cubes at her.
Sada lands and raises a wall of ice which intercepts a couple of flames. Sada ducks as another two fire cubes fly over her head. The other two fire shapes glide left of her. Sada pays attention to the direction the flames were flying from to estimate Betossi's location then extends her hands as she shoots two streams of scorching water at her opponent.
Betossi launches himself seven feet in the air over the shot and Sada sways her hands using vapor from the snow to disperse the smoke. Betossi gasps as he sees Sada but points his left hand as he shoots a wide beam of orange-yellow fire at her.
Sada points her hands slightly low as she launches herself eleven feet in the air at a faster rate than Betossi can initially keep track of. Sada only propels herself slightly backward to ensure she still has a good vision and angle of her adversary. Sada shifts her body as she looks down at him.
Betossi though descending generates fire from his feet so he can meet her in the air and sets sparks from his fists as he prepares to counter. Sada wastes no time in firing a surge of boiling water into Betossi which sends him skyrocketing twelve feet back and directly down into the ground.
As the captain lands, several of his bones crack and his body gives in from the intense boils. Sada draws snow from below to hold her body up before her low dissent back onto the surface. Sada looks at Betossi's remains, "It's a shame it had to be this way."
A Question of Duty
The army corporal Sunia charges with her black hair flowing in the wind. Jannik advances with his wavy dark brown hair and light brown skin shining in the sunlight. Jannik has two acquired swords strapped to his back. Dux pushes on with his own sword.
In addition to them two prison fiebenders, three swordsmen, and two spear warriors march behind them. All of them besides Sunia were prisoners earlier and they are still wearing their prison attire. Several other prisoners are following behind them without any weapons.
Behind a home are two Sogoian spear warriors. A Water Tribe spear warrior points as he sees several armed prisoners advancing with Sunia leading them, "Ooooooh, prisoners lots of them and they're armed!!"
Water Tribe spear warrior 2: "Fall back, we need to reposition to create an ambush!" The spear warriors run but Jannik jumps down from a roof and impales the warrior on the right. Dux steps at the warrior on the left who strikes at Dux's right shoulder.
The trooper thrusts his blade left as he rebuts the attack and hops forward as he kills the man with a vertical stroke. A waterbender stands in front of the home but is blasted back by a fire brick. Dux, Jannik, and a prisoner firebender enter the home. They notice a Sogoian swordsman standing in front of his family which includes his wife, a five-year-old boy, and a seven-year-old girl.
The swordsman stands, "Kill me if you must fire nationals, but spare my family." Dux horizontally swings at the man and he blocks but Dux kicks him down.
The young girl screams, "Daddy no!!"
Dux looks at Jannik, "Do we take prisoners?? Their people at least spared us, we should do the same for them."
Sunia enters with two prisoners beside her. One has a spear and another a sword. Sunia: "OF COURSE NOT!! KILL HIM NOW. But we can be merciful, we will allow him to die with his family so they may be joined together in spirit."
Dux looks in disgust and drops his sword, "Absolutely not, you've lost your mind."
Sunia: "Why do you think the unit came? They came to utterly wipe these people out. You want to spare the enemy just so they and their children can rise against us again?? Think it though, you have your orders. Cement our victory by slaying them."
Dux: "I've thought it through, the answer is no. Come on Jannik, support me on this one." The prisoners outside of the home are listening in and begin gossiping about the discussion outside of the home. Several start arguing with each other.
Sunia: "This is not up for debate."
Jannik: "Dux, pick your sword back up and carry on. We have a mission to complete."
Dux: "NO!"
Sunia: "Then you will die with them. Jannik, execute him!" Dux looks at Jannik earnestly.
Jannik looks back at him frigidly, "With pleasure!" Jannik draws his swords and swings at Dux's neck. The Water Tribe warrior stands up and diagonally blocks the strike and kicks Jannik causing him to stumble two feet back. The Sogoian warrior pedals left and kicks up Dux's sword before grabbing the handle with his other hand.
Sogoian duelist: "Trooper, take your weapon back. We have a righteous fight ahead of us!" The Sogoian warrior tosses Dux his weapon and he catches it.
Dux looks back at Jannik, "I guess this is how it's going to be. I'm not going to slaughter anymore innocents without reason."
Jannik lunges at Dux with two horizontal strikes, "You are a weak disgrace!" Dux rotates his sword as he blocks both blows then counters with his own two strikes that Jannik parries on the backfoot.
One of the spear warriors turns at Sunia and yells, "I won't kill Dux!!" The man lunges at Sunia but she takes a step back and the man accidentally impales his comrade. Sunia hurls a fireball into the soldier's gut.
Sunia turns around and notices a prisoner point at her, "Hey, what is wrong with you?!! You caused division amongst us." Sunia hurls a fireball into the man's chest, knocking him five feet back for all of the prisoners to see.
Sunia steps out of the home and proclaims, "My orders are final and are coming off the back of Colonel Hurayo. This isn't up for discussion. Does anyone else want to challenge me?" Several prisoners start chattering and begin to argue amongst each other.
Prisoner firebender: "Yeah I do, these people treated us well, why do we have to kill them?!"
A prisoner spear warrior points, "You are a vile woman Sunia, why should we kill villagers?? Children and elders have not risen blades against us. How would you feel if they did that to our people?"
Sunia: "This is war you fool. War is brutal."
Firebender prisoner 2: "No, she's right! This world is ours for the taking. We kill because it makes us feared and though fear we are indomitable."
Spear swordsman 2: "Don't forget your duty, we are destroyers. That is what we do. We do not question; we live by our creed."
Prisoner swordsman: "Then keep being a brainwashed slave. I think there is more to life than that. Even back home they don't treat us equally. They worship the royals like they are a deity or something. They treat nobles like they are superior to us. I say screw it all, I've been much happier in Sogo anyway as a prisoner than in my birth nation as a citizen."
Several people gasp. Prisoner swordsman: "They always told us we are supposed to be happy, supposed to be grateful because we live in a nation with shiny things and stolen imported goods that we are supposed to be grateful. It is obvious that all the things we have gotten wrongly will make the rest of the world hate us and you have to wonder if that is a good tradeoff."
The sword wielding prisoner continues, "Many say it is because the people above us who will also kill, imprison, or bankrupt us if we disagree said it is. Well, I'm tired of listening to their crappy decisions. I'm ready to make my own decisions and I say screw that order. Screw Sunia, screw Ozai, and screw that Hurayo guy. It's time to rewrite the book on this crap."
(Music Starts- Star Wars: Crosshair Theme X The Bad Batch Theme | EPIC DARK VERSION)
Sunia barks, "You imbeciles!! All those who are loyal to this nation strike them down." Several prisoners draw swords, spears, and enter stances against each other until Sunia kicks her right leg and pumps a fireball at the sword wielding prisoner. The man dives left as he dodges the attack, but it causes an explosion behind him, and the prisoners start fighting each other.
One prisoner levels another with an overhand right. Another prisoner tackles a swordsman from behind and repeatedly slams his head into the ground. A nonbender prisoner throws a rock into a swordman's nose which cracks it and follows up by tackling the duelist and hammering his fist into the man's face.
A prisoner horizontally slashes another duelist with his sword. A prisoner with a spear rams his weapon into a firebender's neck. Sunia becomes nervous as the unpredictable fighting breaks out around her. Sunia hears a swordsman charge at her from her right flank and kicks a fireball into his chest.
A second sword-wielding prisoner leaps at the firebender from behind but Sunia rolls out of the way before a spear-wielding loyalist slides his weapon into the duelist's right thigh, "Awwwwwwaahaah!!" Sunia launches jumps onto a water and climbs on top of a building.
Sunia thinks, These prisoners aren't worth it. I'll allow them to finish their dispute amongst each other while I make sure my Hurayo wins this battle. Then we can come back to these people. If our loyalists win, fine. If they don't, then we WILL kill who remains.
A prisoner swordsman stands across from Sunia, "Trying to escape?! Where's the honor in that?"
A prisoner with a spear stands a few feet behind her, "Yeah, who's noble now?"
Sunia: "You are a fool to announce your presence when you could have had the element of surprise!" In a burst of rage Sunia performs a back kick which pumps a fireball into the man's stomach. The swordsman rushes at Sunia with a vertical swing but Sunia pivots right and pushes the man off the home.
(music stops)
Sunia then leaps off the building on top of another one as she sneaks past the battle. Meanwhile a waterbender and a spear warrior notice the fighting about 30 meters out from their position. Waterbender: "Ugh, the Fire Nation prisoners are fighting each other. I've never seen or heard of anything like this."
Spear warrior: "Well, just warn some reserve to wait on standby, for now let's give them time to resolve whatever their dispute is. Hopefully, the situation turns out favorably for us. If not, then let's at least hope most of them kill each other so whoever is left will be easy pickings."