Chapter Text
“In the wake of Kuvira’s War, the Fire Nation was rocked by tremendous political and social changes. Despite its industry and modern economy, the Fire Nation retained its absolute monarchy, headed by Fire Lord Izumi. This contradiction resulted in opposition movements to remove the Fire Lord's power. In order to avoid the violent revolutions that rocked the United Republic, the Earth Kingdom, and the Northern Water Tribe, Crown Princess Azaya (elevated after Prince Iroh abdicated in protestation of an absolute monarchy) convinced Fire Lord Izumi to create the House of the People and the House of the Guided of the National Diet, an assembly of local officials elected by the citizens of each province in the Fire Nation. Over time, the power of the Diet grew while the power of the throne diminished. In the modern era, Fire Lord Nakiza has veto power over some of the Diet’s legislation and control over his personal guard, the Imperial Firebenders. Most of the government’s operations are overseen by the Prime Minister and her cabinet. It is yet to be seen how the nationalist and populist movements taking hold will affect the traditionally tolerant and pacifistic Royal Family…”
-From the Ashes of War by Lord Zwei Morishita, Professor of History at the University of Karudera.
Karudera, the capitol of the Fire Nation, outshone the stars in the night sky above. Long ago, in the time of Fire Lord Zuko, Karudera was limited to a gap in the coastal range at the foot of the Mt. Kemurikage volcano, but now it had spread. Where it was not protected by natural cliffs of basalt, giant sea walls held back the wrath of the ocean, protecting the fifty million people in the city from being inundated. Behind the wall were blocks upon blocks of neon-colored lights and vibrant screens advertising the latest in technology, power, and entertainment. Further towards the center of the megalopolis, a copse of immense towers and skyscrapers competed with each other for the most iconoclastic and outrageous appearance. Just beyond the forest of steel and glass, the glowing grid of the city infrastructure distorted upwards, following the slope of the large volcano. In the volcano’s caldera, a stately, red and black palace taking the form of numerous interlocked pagodas overlooked its charge.
The city was burning. Twelve hours earlier, the secretary general of the Golden Phoenix Party was accused of brokering an illegal arms deal between the Fire Nation Navy and collectivist militias in the Si Wong. Immediately, he claimed in a fire brand speech that the Prime Minister and her party were trying to silence him and the voices of the Fire Nation’s people by creating false charges. In fact, he insisted that she had made the deal. Despite all evidence to contrary, he stirred up enough fear and hatred that a vote of no confidence was demanded. The Prime Minister’s supporters took to the streets in protest of the perceived coup, and were met by counter-demonstrators of the Golden Phoenix and New Sozinist factions. Events took a violent turn, and soon the Docks and Avatar Aang Ward were aflame.
Hiro had experienced these demonstrations-turned-riots before. When he and his sister Kova were young, their father and uncle stowed them away in the basement during a prior constitutional crisis. Anti-Earth nation triad members ransacked his dojo. This new demonstration was evolving the same way, inevitably transforming into a riot. Police Satothopters were starting to corral the Sozinists away from residential areas, but officers had been beaten back near the market. Hiro, despite his sense of self-preservation, had run to the Docks as fast as he could. Mrs. Lun’s Authentic Earth Kingdom Cuisine was almost like a second home for Hiro and Kova. After their father and uncle had been arrested and locked away, the kind old proprietor had offered them work for food until Hiro achieved stable employment. The idea of a bunch of top-knotted thugs razing her restaurant and putting her in a hospital enraged him.
Mrs. Lun tugged on Hiro’s sleeve, saying “Hiro, I heard online that the Her Highness declared a state of emergency. The Imperial Firebenders are being sent in.”
“While I would love to see the them cut through these hateful animals, I don’t think Princess Mizuri has that kind of power, Mrs. Lun, even if the Fire Lord allowed it.” Not likely; he’s completely out-of-touch, he thought to himself. “Hopefully, the chief will send in a few more Satothopters and riot police.” At that moment, a glowing hot brick crashed through the window, missing Hiro and Mrs. Lun by a few feet. “Aw, crap.”
Hiro ushered the restaurant owner into the backroom with the rest of the Lun family, telling them to block the entrance. As they barricaded themselves inside, Hiro turned around to face the vandals. Four men and a woman, all wearing top-knots, stood menacingly in the now-empty window frame.
“Step aside, we’re only here for the dirtheads,” said the woman, “not good Fire Nation folk.” To illustrate her point, she bent a fireball into existence above her open palm. While Hiro forced himself to remain outwardly calm, internally he was incensed.
“Look,” he started, “A couple of things. One, I’m half Earth nation myself, so be careful. Two, I know these people, and they’re good people. Do the right thing and leave them alone. Go home.”
“Good people? Good for nothing ground eaters are stealing our jobs! Including you!” The biggest and dumbest looking of the men spoke. In response, Hiro dramatically looked towards the menu posted behind the cash register, before turning back to the aggressors.
“I seriously doubt that you even know how to make a decent beetle-worm soup, big guy.” The hostility in the room grew, and Hiro instantly regretted those words. Even still, he found that he couldn’t keep himself from piling on. “Sorry, that was mean of me. Maybe a big dumb fire tosser has hidden depths of the cul—” He never got to finish those words, because the big guy stepped into a clumsy stance, throwing a stream of fire in Hiro’s direction. Hiro dropped low, grounding himself as he dissipated the fire in front of him with a block. He didn’t give them a chance to react as he used his backhand to throw his own jet of fire. The blast of expanding air shoved his opponent through the window he had previously broken.
There was a moment of silence as the four remaining Sozinists went slackjawed, attention split between Hiro and their fallen comrade. The group recovered, however, and the three remaining men charged him, two pulling knives out of their red vests and one brandishing a gun. Hiro brought his front leg up and then down in a heel-kick, sending an arc of flame towards the man with the gun and burning his front from head to toe. The weapon went off in an unintended direction, and one of the men with knives stumbled with a pained cry. Taking advantage of the confusion, Hiro stepped into the gunman and landed some blows to his throat and stomach to ensure he stayed down, before turning his attention towards the other two. He made short work of them with a fire-fueled punch and and uppercut into the wounded man’s jaw. When they dropped, he felt just enough tell-tale heat to warn him of the girl’s incoming blast, and he twisted out of the way just in time. Even though his longcoat protected him from most of the blast, he still felt the hairs on his arm seemingly vaporize due to the heat.
The lone Sozinist standing was in a much more competent stance than her companions had been, and immediately pressed her advantage. Hiro let her get close him by merely blocking and diverting her blows. As she launched another blast of fire from an outstretched arm, he stepped sidestepped so that her back was open to him and brought down his foot into the back of her knee. She went down with a cry, and he he grappled her so that her arm was behind her back in a very painful position. Hiro’s victory was short lived, however. When it seemed she was about to yield, an electric shock went through him and he stumbled backwards. Just when he reoriented himself he felt a powerful kick to the chest and was thrown onto the street in a swirl of limbs, glass, and flame. He landed on his back, the wind knocked out of him.
“Bleeding hog-monkeys.” Hiro wheezed out, using the breathing techniques his uncle taught him to recover. “Was that a shock shield?” He managed to get himself upright, only to see that his opponent was hovering over the burned gunman instead of focused on him.
“Oh,” Hiro intelligently muttered, momentarily feeling bad for the violence he caused. He called over “I don’t suppose you want to take the peaceful option now?” In response, the firebender girl pulled a small, metal cylinder out and fired a lightning bolt in his direction. Hiro reached out with his left hand and guided the energy through his stomach and out of his body with his right hand. As it moved through him, he felt temporarily euphoric with the amount of power at his command. The lightning was redirected, arcing harmlessly through the air and into the ground. The Sozinist girl opened and closed her mouth in shock and a bit of fear before aiming the device at him again, hands shaking. “Stay back, dirtlover!”
Well, thought Hiro, there goes what bit of sympathy I had for her. How in the world did she get a bolt thrower? Despite that, he raised his hands in what he hoped was a non-threatening way. “Look, I told you and your racist pals to—”
His explanation was cut short by a bright light that suddenly surrounded the both of them and was accompanied by a loud buzzing noise. An artificial voice called out “ATTENTION CITIZENS, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR DISTURBING THE PEACE.” Hiro looked up and behind himself to see a police Satothopter beat it’s wings as it maneuvered between high rise buildings towards the sea front. And just as he turned his back, he heard the crackling of electricity. Hiro’s body alighted with a burning pain and he fell into darkness.
A few minutes later, he awoke uncomfortably in cramped room with worn leather seats while the world tipped side to side. After a few seconds adjusting to his new environment, Hiro realized he was in the back of a Satothopter flying high over Karudera. Inside the soundproofed cabin, the beating wings weren’t nearly as loud as on the street, so the cop in the passenger seat noticed when Hiro started tapping on the Varriglass barrier separating them. The officer was a middle-aged woman of Water tribe descent, Hiro assumed, with dark skin and blue eyes that appraised him curiously. “What’s your name, kid?”
“Hiro, ma’am. Short for Hiroaki.”
“No family name?”
“No, ma’am. Am I being arrested?”
The policewoman nodded. “Yes, but I don’t think you’ll be charged with anything. Half the city is burning and we’re running out of room to keep rioters. As far as I’m concerned, your’e the least of our problems. We’ll probably put you in holding for a few hours and then you’ll be home free.” That seemed irregular to Hiro, but who was he to look a gift-ostrich horse in the mouth? Then, a more ominous thought occurred to him.
“Oh, man. Kova will kill me for this.” Hiro was only slightly exaggerating. The forlorn look she would give him would most likely wilt his soul.
“Is Kova your mother?”
“My little sister, actually. Well, not that little I guess. Only a year difference.” Hiro’s voice took on an air of nostalgia.
“Ba Sing Se twins, huh?”
“More or less. Mom was from Gaoling, though.”
“I get the feeling she’s the more mature one, if you’re off trying act all noble and protect that adorable old lady.”
“You are not completely wrong, ma’am.” Hiro paused, and then asked, “What happened to those rioters?”
“They all went to a hospital. Except for the girl, she’s been arrested and transported in a different ‘thopter.” He raised his eyebrows at that. There was room in this Satothopter after all, but Hiro supposed he should be grateful for not having to share anymore air as her and her ilk. Still, he hurt them pretty badly.
“Are they going to be alright?” asked Hiro. The cop gave him a surprised look before tapping at the console in front of her.
“It says here that they’ll be okay, nothing some synthskin can’t fix.”
Hiro hummed noncommittally at that.
They didn’t talk much after that, only a few words when the silence became too awkward. Instead, Hiro peered through the Satothopter’s porthole at the city below. The fires ravaging the Ward had been put out, but smoke still wafted into the already polluted air above. As the thopter buzzed its way towards the Zuko Quarter Police Station, it weaved through the spires of downtown Karudera. The twin helices of the Glass Dragon Technologies Tower shone blue. If Hiro had any viewing glasses, he’d have seen massive screens advertising the latest augmented reality lenses and media slates projected into the cyberspace around the structure. Similarly, the narrow, pyramidal spire of Takeshi Cybernetics Karudera Headquarters jutted into the air on the other side of the aircraft. It was advertising a groundbreaking neural interface to be installed directly into a person’s spinal column. Skyscraper after technological marvel after opulent monument. Eventually, the thopter left the corporate heart of Karudera behind and flew towards a valley resting on the slope of Mt. Kemurikage. The valley was filled with bland, prefabricated buildings that had been customized, modified, and packed together like sardine-squids. In their totality, the created a labyrinthine system of footpaths, catwalks, and alleys that connected homes and businesses. Rising above the prefabs was a wide landing platform attached to a large, even blander monolithic building: the Zuko Quarter Police Station, presiding of the namesake of the ancient Fire Lord. Home.
After they landed, Hiro was brought into a sterile holding cell he shared with a drunk and woman clearly going through stim withdrawals. After about an hour, most of which he spent trying to nap on the hard bench, he was taken to an interrogation room where he ran them through the series of events that happened at Mrs. Lun’s. After that, it was back to the holding cell for an hour. Just as he was about to doze off into the peace of sleep, the cell door opened and a guard ushered him out into the waiting room.
Sitting at a bench and reading from a real, paper poetry book was Kova. She dressed in red and yellow, with her brown hair in a bob in an attempt to emulate the Master Jinora. She didn’t quite succeed, her skin being much darker and eyes much greener than the legendary airbender. Hiro approached and quipped, “Well, it could’ve gone better, I admit. However, that’s five Sozinist thugs rethinking their life-choices at the moment.” Kova glanced upwards with a thoroughly unimpressed expression.
“Come on,” she said, “Let’s go home.”
“What?” Hiro said as they started the walk home, “I thought you airbenders loved justice, equality, and freedom.”
“The Air Nomads were also traditionally pacifists, Hiro, unless acting in self-defense,” Kova pointed out.
“I was acting in self-defense!” Hiro protested. When Kova gave him a look that clearly communicated her disbelief, he continued, “I was! The police are letting me off the hook for it.”
“One,” his sister stated, “I’d be more likely to believe you if you didn’t look so pleased with yourself. Two, they let you go because they have bigger elephant-koi to fry than you, especially on a night like this. And three,” Kova turned around and poked him hard in the chest, “By all that is sacred and revered, what were you doing picking fights with a bunch of New Sozinists?” Hiro at least had the sense of mind to look a little chastised.
“I was at Mrs. Lun’s place,” he said. Kova’s glare softened a bit. “I couldn’t stand the thought of something happening to them while I could’ve done something about it.”
“Are the Luns okay?”
“The officer who arrested me said they were shaken, but otherwise fine. I made sure those thugs never got near them.” Kova’s face scrunched up.
“Did you at least try to talk to them, first?”
“I tried, but I may have been a bit too…” Hiro searched for the right word, “smart with them. Besides, they most of them didn’t seem like the reasonable type.” Kova rolled her eyes. They reached their building, and climbed the four flights of stairs to get to the the apartment door. The interior consisted of a bedroom, bathroom, and a small general purpose area. The general area had a miniature stove and oven set up in the middle, with a bedroll laid out next to it. Another small space was set aside for the meager dining the siblings enjoyed twice per day.
Kova disappeared into the bedroom for the night, having already lost precious hours of sleep. Her brother followed suit, curling up on the bed roll and passing into a dreamless sleep.
Hiro awoke to the sound of his slate playing “Lost My Heart in Republic City,” and begrudgingly pulled himself towards the offending alarm. Despite the sleep in his eyes, he made out the caller’s name, Kurosawa. He tapped the bright screen.
“Morning, Ran.” Hiro had found gainful employment as a courier and bouncer for various Karudera tribes. Ran, being a hacker and investigator for hire in Republic City, became a steady source of income when Hiro was employed to act as his hands and muscle in the sprawling Fire Nation capitol.
“If by ‘morning,’ you mean the early afternoon, sure,” responded an artificially distorted voice. Hiro quickly searched the apartment. Sure enough, Kova was gone for school.
“Aw, crap.”
“And don’t use my real name on this channel, it’s unprofessional.”
“Sorry, Kurosawa. Just tired. I slept in.
“Long night, Hiro?”
“You could say that. New Sozinist rioters hit the Docks last night, and I was playing bouncer for some Earth nation folks.” Hiro found an packet of Flameo Instant Noodles and set to boiling some water on the mini-stove.
“Can you still work?” Kurosawa asked.
“Yeah, I’m good. What am I running today?”
“I need you to pick up a data stick from Jumbo Jing.”
“Jing?” Hiro dumped the flavor packet into the boiling pot, “Kay, you know I don’t like working with the triads.”
“It’s legitimate, I promise you. Jing has information I need for a case.”
“What’s the case?”
“Client confidentiality, Hiro. I can’t tell you.” Hiro hummed noncommittally, and slurped some noodles straight from the pot. “I’ll even double your rate, because you’re a friend.” Hiro choked, forced himself to swallow and reached for a glass of water. “That got your attention, didn’t it?”
“Bleeding hog-monkeys, yeah. I’ll do it. But promise me, it is legitimate?” implored Hiro.
“I think I could save lives with this, and I don’t trust anyone else in the Fire Nation to send me the files besides you.” Hiro pondered for a bit. Ran may be underhanded, but his online-friend and sometimes employer was fundamentally a good person. If he needed the data stick, it was for a good cause. “I’lll get your drive. One thing, though. One hundred fifty percent my usual rate, not two hundred. It’s too much for a good deed.”
“Shut up, and take the double rate, you zealot. Buy your sister something nice. She likes books, right? Real books?”
“Yeah, she’s old fashioned like that.”
“Perfect. The hand off is behind the Fire Sage Temple in your area in an hour, if you know where that is?
“I’m familiar,” managed Hiro in between mouthfuls of instant noodle. “I’ll be there. Is there a code word for the handoff?”
“ ‘Darkness thrives in the void, but always yields to purifying light.’ ”
“Got it. Did you choose that phrase?”
“Yeah, it’s from The Avatar and the Fire Lord.”
“Fascinating, truly. You and my sister would get along fabulously,” he finished the noodles quickly. “How do you want it sent? CryptCube?”
“I’d prefer it in person, but CryptCube will do. Depending on the file size, it might take a while.”
“Not a problem. Talk to you soon.” With that, he ended the call.
The path Hiro took to the Fire Sages’ Temple took him through the market square, where he was bombarded with the sights and smells of every nation. A water tribe woman was advertising her seaweed noodles as the best in the Fire Nation. One man was selling refurbished Matrix rigs, while another man in gold and red robes handing out Air Nomad poetry (Hiro was fairly certain he’d seen Kova reading the same pamphlet). The smell of spices, burnt rubber, a miasma of perfumes and colognes, and sweat permeated the air and drove Hiro to pull the lapels of his coat up around his mouth and nose.
He briefly made eye contact with a girl in a red vest and top-knot playing dice with similarly dressed teenagers. The same girl from the night before. Immediately, Hiro bolted into the crowd, adeptly twisting around to avoid knocking over fellow pedestrians. The last thing he wanted was for Ran’s job to go belly-up. He ducked behind a BrightEye stall, rushed through an narrow walkway between two stalls before looping back around to where he first saw the Sozinist gang. Still there, playing dice. Feeling stupid for his paranoia after the beating he gave them the previous evening, Hiro continued on his way.
After weaving around innumerable stalls and vendors, he eventually found himself in an open area in front of a large Fire Sage temple. As with most of the ancient buildings within Karudera, the wood, stone, and plaster construction was dwarfed by the glass, plastic, and steel monoliths on all sides. This wasn’t the Great Temple in the palace complex, but it was a beautiful structure nonetheless. The seven-layered pagoda was a vivid red color, with gold dragons ornately wrapped around the columns and door frames. A few spiritual people reverently shuffled their way in and out. It was an ode to a time long gone, maintained by the tireless efforts of aging Fire Sages.
Hiro ignored the smattering of people leaving the temple. He skirted around the front into the alleyway between the pagoda and the prefab stack next over. The alley forked behind the temple to it’s rear entrance, where an abnormally tall man in a pink kimono hunched over a Pai Sho board set up on a plastic table. Jumbo Jing looked up from the board to the newcomer.
“You look lost, kid,” Jing accused, “would you like to play, or keep stumbling around in the dark?”
“Darkness thrives in the void,” replied Hiro, “but always yields to purifying light.”
“Well said, young man,” the gaudy triad leader nodded approvingly, “Jumbo Jing will give Kurosawa that which he asked for.” He produced a smooth, black rectangle from within the folds of his kimono and beckoned Hiro over to him. He complied warily, and extended his hand to accept the data stick.
Just as he was about to leave, Jing grabbed his wrist in a whip like motion. “You should stay, and play a game nonetheless.” The infamous triad leader grinned, showing off artificial teeth that ended in points.
“Mr. Jing, I would rather I get this to Kurosawa straight away and not waste any of your precious time.” Hiro was torn between his desire to not anger this man, and to get away from him as fast as possible.
“Nonsense, kid. Jumbo Jing doesn’t have that many people to play with. Most of his people let him win, and Jumbo Jing wants to win fair and square. So sit.”
Reluctantly, Hiro sat down across the table from the giant man, who let go of his wrist.
“Since you work for Kurosawa, you will play the darker tiles. You are also a guest, and will make the first move.” Hiro did so.
Pai Sho was never his game, but he’d played it often enough with his antiquarian of a sister that he knew the rules fairly well. Playing against Jumbo Jing, Hiro knew he was severely outmatched. Even still, he tried his best to give Jing the game he wanted. After a dozen turns, however, it was clear to Hiro that he’d failed in this regard.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Jing. I’m not a very good Pai Sho player. I routinely get trounced by little sister.”
“Sadly, Jumbo Jing is not playing your little sister,” sighed Jing. Hiro prayed to a myriad of spirits that such an event would never come to pass. “However, you are not as bad as you think you are. You are talented and have a strong instinct for action, but you second guess yourself and hesitate. Continue to act in such a way, and the future will turn against you.” He pointedly looked over Hiro’s shoulder. “And Jing would wager quite a lot of money that’s how you got those plebeians as your shadow.”
Hiro turned around, and his heart seized up. The New Sozinist girl and her new entourage were waiting expectantly, armed to the teeth with blades and guns. His first thought was, Why is the Universe out to ruin me, today? His second was, What about Kova? The girl pointed a finger in Hiro’s direction and shouted “You messed up, traitor! You’re going to pay for what happened to my friends!”
“Jing is going to take his leave,” said Jumbo Jing as he swept his Pai Sho set into his duffel bag. Hiro’s palms began to sweat.
“You’re just going to let them have at me?” he hissed at Jing.
“Like Jing said, you second guessed yourself and now unfinished business has come back. He wishes you luck, but this is a hard lesson best learned by oneself.” He folded the plastic table under his arms and disappeared farther back into the alley.
“Your prissy friend abandoned you, dirt lover,” called out the Sozinist ringleader. The girl’s right eye glowed from a nightvision contact lens, which Hiro assumed is how she was able to follow him with him noticing. “You shouldn’t have messed with me. My father is Representative Jong, and it’s time for us to put foreign dogs like you back into your proper place.” Jong’s daughter smiled viciously. “I overheard that you have a sister. Maybe we’ll fix her up good, too.” Hiro refocused on the girl that had been the bane of his existence for the past twenty-four hours. The dam that was restraining his anger and frustration, for his family, his country, and his situation, finally and catastrophically failed.
“Just shut up!” Hiro snarled back. “Do me and the rest of the planet a favor and jump into the sea! You think you’re staying true to the Fire Nation of old, huh? Let’s see you put your money where your mouth is and take me in a fire duel. I challenge one of you to an Agni Kai! Man-to-man!” I need to separate them. If I’m lucky, they’ll back down after I lay my opponent out . If not… he remembered what Jing intuited about hesitating. I guess I’ll see this through to the end. He also thought about his sister. Knowing Ran, he may feel responsible for Hiro’s untimely demise and take care of Kova for him. He was a good man like that.
When none of the New Sozinists moved to accept his challange, Hiro doubled down. “Come on! You were talking like you were the biggest, baddest defenders of the homeland! Are you all too cowardly to take on a single dirt eater? Too afraid to take on the son of an Earth Kingdom migrant!? Let’s do this! An Agni Kai! Bring it on!”
After some awkward looks exchanged between his rivals, one of them stepped forward and drew his sword. That moron doesn’t even know that weapons were forbidden in fire duels. Hiro had to admit, however, that his opponent cut an impressive figure. Tall and muscular to go along with the usual Sozinist ensemble and a katana; on any other day Hiro might have avoided this fight. Today, however, he felt the need to kick back at the Universe for everything currently going wrong in his life.
Without breaking eye contact, he retreated a few steps before bowing to the swordsman. His opponent, surprised by the formality being observed, followed suit in an awkward fashion. The world slowed for a moment, everything still save for the usual noises of the city. Impatient to get on with it, he called out, “Daddy’s girl! Signal the start!” While he never lost focus on the swordsman, he could feel the hatred coming his way from her direction. He heard her shout, “Put him down, Joji!” and the world kicked into gear once again.
Joji made the first move, cutting the air in front of him in a horizontal motion and sending an arc of fire in Hiro’s direction. Foregoing traditional defense, being eager to end this decisively, Hiro rolled underneath the flame. When he finished the roll, he had nearly closed the distance to his opponent and used the energy of his forward motion to create a wave of orange flame that enveloped the swordsman. As the other man desperately bent the fire away from him, Hiro took the opening offered to him by shifting his weight to the back and pivoting, sweeping the man’s feet by extending his front leg as it whipped around. Joji fell to the ground, and Hiro grabbed the sword by the blade. Joji, having unexpectedly become intimate with his least favorite element, let the sword slide out of his grip. Hiro swung the katana over his head and brought the handle down hard on Joji’s face with a crunch. Now armed with his own blade, Hiro backed up to where he had stood at the beginning of the duel.
“Anybody else?” For a second, Hiro saw them think it over, trying to figure out how to run away and save face. Unfortunately for him, they were clued in to how this was going to pan out if they kept facing him one on one. Once again, a their leader activated the bolt thrower. Knowing that he couldn’t stand up to their raw firepower, Hiro jumped back and to the side while bending a wall of fire towards the group. The flame didn’t phase them, however and one of their firebenders dissipated the attack while the rest unloaded their armaments in his direction.
Hiro ran towards the back door of the temple, the bullets zipping through the air around him and exploding against the outer temple wall. He casually firebent the door open and plowed into the temple interior.
The Fire Sage Temple was dedicated to Avatar Aang, depicted in an obsidian bas relief on the back wall, lit by torches along the walls and columns supporting the pagoda above. Aang was shown protecting the people of the Fire Nation from the tyranny of the Three Forsaken Fire Lords, assisted by Fire Lord Zuko and Avatar Roku’s guidance. The congregation was absent, the only occupants being an elderly Fire Sage and his acolyte scrubbing the floor. When Hiro burst into their sanctuary in a cloud of fire and ammunition, the dropped everything and ducked behind a pillar near the entrance.
Pain exploded in Hiro’s left arm just above the elbow as a bullet entered and exited his flesh. Another hit the floor in front of him, sending up a cloud of splinters. He tried to twist around to face his attackers, but the woman leading the group landed a fireball on his chest. He barely manage to bend it away, and was sent sprawling onto the floor at the foot of the statue. Dazed and bloodied, he pulled himself up on his knees. Playing his ace in the hole, he moved his hands in a circular motion, separating the positive and negative energies around him. When they recombined, he guided the lightning out of his fingertips towards his attackers as they entered the temple. He hit one of men square in the chest and his opponent was launched back through the door and onto the ground outside. Their leader retaliated by raising the bolt thrower at him again, but before she could fire the device the Sage emerged from his hiding place and interceded himself between them.
“Please,” he begged, “this is a sacred place!” He raised his arms above his head, red robes swinging as he ran. “No violence!”
“Get out of the way, Sage.” said the Sozinists’ ringleader, “this isn’t your business.”
“I will not step aside,” the clergyman planted himself in front of a bloodied Hiro.
“You will step aside because you serve the Fire Nation, not invaders from the Earth Kingdom.” She gestured towards Hiro, who was trying to stem the bleeding from his arm.
“You are wrong on many accounts, but the most important of which is this. I do not serve the Fire Nation. The Fire Sages serve the balance of the world.”
She narrowed her eyes at this.
“Then you’re a traitor, too.” She fired the bolt thrower, and the Sage spasmed then collapsed as the electricity briefly enveloped him and then ceased. Hiro watched this unfold with horror, and more importantly, anger. These xenophobes coming after him was understandable, if stupid. But this Sage was merely a good man advocating peace. An innocent like Mrs. Lun and her family. To attack him, simply because he stood between them and Hiro… it wasn’t right. He couldn’t let the Sage’s life be on his account.
“No more.”
His mouth moved, but it wasn’t Hiro’s voice that resonated like thunder through the temple. He stood with the grace of purpose and a tranquility that belied his current state. It was odd. The pain of Hiro’s wounds were numbed, and his body was acting of its own accord by pure instinct. Hiro was merely a passenger. On the obsidian relief, the eyes of Avatars Aang and Roku began to glow a blinding white that cast long shadows across the temple floor.
Hiro’s limbs moved in quick and unfamiliar spiral patterns that generated a furious whirlwind. The New Sozinist gang gaped uncomprehendingly as they beheld the awesome power that Hiro was miraculously wielding. He was now suspended from the ground on a column of rotating air, invisible but felt by everyone in the room. He gripped Joji’s sword tightly over his head and swung downwards as he let gravity take hold. When he landed, a gust of air blasted his foes through the temple wall and into the alleyway behind the temple. A shift in his stance, and another current propelled him through the hole. Levitating over the prone men and woman, he motioned with a free hand for the earth beneath to cover and immobilize them. They struggled to unbury themselves to no avail, and looked up to Hiro in pure fear.
“Leave, and never harm anyone here again, or else I will find you. There will not be a third chance.”
He earthbent them free, and they immediately scrambled to their feet and ran as though a death squad was on their heels, stopping only to pick up their fallen comrades.
Satisfied that they would no longer be a threat, he reentered the temple. The Sage was standing up again, looking only disheveled with his white hair sticking up in odd directions from under his headpiece. He was safe.
The energy that filled Hiro and guided his actions faded, and the pain of his injuries came back full force. He swayed, his vision twisted, and he found himself on the floor. The Sage was tending to him, tearing off a piece of his red robe and wrapping it around Hiro’s upper arm.
“Go get Naomi! Quickly, acolyte!” commanded the Fire Sage. The acolyte rushed out of the temple in a flat run. Meanwhile, Hiro was still trying to digest the events that had just occurred. He had bent air and earth. He had felt a strange force control his actions, only it didn’t feel like a possession. It felt like some part of him had been unlocked, a part that he was hitherto unaware of.
“It is an honor to serve you,” intoned the Sage with an air of reverence. Hiro was confused. Why would…? The other shoe dropped. Oh, thought Hiro, followed by a frantic No, no way.
“Izumi will come back soon with a healer,” the Sage continued, “do you have any other wounds besides your arm and chest?” Hiro heard him, but failed to respond. “Are you alright, Master Avatar?”
“I’m not the Avatar!”
The Sage looked stunned at Hiro’s outburst. An apologetic look grew on his withered face, and he softly intoned, “You didn’t know, did you?”
Hiro didn’t respond. He was struggling to breathe and his entire body was shaking. The elderly clergyman put a hand on Hiro’s shoulder and asked, “What is your name, young man?”
“Hiro,” he stated after a long silence, “short for Hiroaki.”
“An appropriate name, I think,” said the Sage, “Mine is Ryu. Who are those people who attacked you?” Hiro explained the events of the past twenty four hours, starting with the riot and ending with how several New Sozinist thugs chased him into the temple. While he told the story, Ryu had Izumi close all the doors and make them some tea. It had a calming effect on him, so that by the time he finished his story, his breathing was more regular and the acolyte Izumi returned with an old woman dressed in Water Tribe whites and blues.
Naomi, presumably, bent water out of a pouch she carried and applied it to Hiro’s wounds. The glowing water reduced the pain, and Hiro could feel the bullet hole in his arm begin to close and halt the bleeding (though Naomi said it would leave a scar). Soon, his upper arm was wrapped in fresh bandages and synthskin. The mild burn on his chest faded into slightly pink skin, only slightly raw. When she was done, Sage Ryu offered her a few yen, but she refused, citing something about taking advantage of a temple. He bowed to her, and she repeated the gesture back to him and left.
This left Hiro alone with the elderly sage and his acolyte once more. They sat in silence for an unknown amount of time, as Hiro tried to digest what
“What do I do now?” Hiro asked forlornly.
“First things first, you might want to get out of the city to avoid unwanted attention.”
“What?” Hiro spluttered, eyes wide like saucers, “I can’t just leave! I have my sister to take care of, and a job, and…” He trailed off as his brain caught up current events. Ryu was right. There was no way those Sozinists would keep their mouths shut about what happened. Especially Representative Jong’s daughter. He sipped the tea to compose himself. “Where should I go?”
“Go to Republic City,” said the Sage, “the monks at Air Temple Island will teach you to master airbending.” Hiro considered. What would happen to Kova? She still had a year left of schooling, and he couldn’t pull her out of that. And how would he even explain this to her? Hey, little sister. I’ve had the strangest day! I played Pai Sho with a triad leader, got into another fight with some Sozinist gang… oh, and I’m the flaming Avatar! What a surprise!
“What do I do about Kova?”
Ryu pondered for a moment. “You said your sister was an airbender?”
“Yes,” Hiro answered, “but she’s untrained.”
“Well, there you go.” He shrugged. “Take her with you to the Air Nomads.”
“But she’s still in school, I can’t just—” Hiro paused. Becoming an Air Nomad was Kova’s dream, and it was time to let her decide what she would do now that he was the Avatar. Hiro wondered if his stomach would one day stop doing backflips every time he thought about being the Avatar.
He stood, folded his hands in the traditional Fire Nation way, and bowed to his host.
“Thank you, Fire Sage Ryu.”
“It has been an honor to offer you guidance, Avatar Hiro. Good luck.”
When Kova returned to the apartment, she found Hiro sitting cross-legged on his sleeping mat. He was meditating, which he had learned from their uncle before the dojo was destroyed. Kova knew something was wrong, as Hiro rarely ever resorted to meditation unless he was seriously troubled.
“Hiro?” she asked, “Is everything alright?
“Yeah, I’m okay,” he stated, but Kova knew him well enough to know that wasn’t true. He opened his eyes and their gazes locked. “If I told that you could drop out of school right now, and travel with me to Republic City so that you could learn airbending from Master Jinora herself, would you do it?”
Kova was sure she’d heard that incorrectly, and tried to resist the excitement and trepidation bubbling up in her chest.
“Hiro, what on Earth are you talking about?”
“I’m serious,” Hiro pressed, “if you had the opportunity to go to Air Temple Island to become an Air Nomad, would you take it?”
Kova didn’t consider it for very long.
“Absolutely,” she affirmed as Hiro visibly relaxed, “Why are you asking?”
Her brother didn’t immediately answer, thinking to himself for a few seconds before responding, “In that case, I need to call Ran.”
“Who is Ran? What’s going on?”
Hiro gave her a nervous half-smile. “Pack your bags, sis. We’re going to the United Republic.”