In Absence of a King

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The great city of Omashu. Home of the great King Bumi, who survived over a hundred years of war. One of the greatest minds in the world, and unmatched in strength on the battleground.

Mattias stood up from his crouch as he overlooked the great city from one of the many surrounding mountains. In the distance, the sun started to dissapear behind the landscape. For so many years the city has servered as a beacon of hope to him, that a city could survive the war, and still remain intact. Not just physically, but spiritually. The people of Omashu were a whole people. Then why on earth do I want to turn the other way?

This was the question that he had been asking himself for the past hour. He had arrived outside of Omashu after several days of fast pace travelling. He was tired, but still had a decent amount of energy left in him. The first thing he had done was approach the gate. This was his first clue that something was wrong...

... the sun beat down upon Mattias as he stared down the gatekeeper. Both men wore frowns, and sweat was rolling down the sides of their faces. They were in the midst of a heat wave.

The keeper was the traditional earthbender. Rediculously strong, and as blunt as the rocks he threw. Therefore he wasted no time getting on Mattias' bad side.

"I say again gate keeper, I wish to pass into the mighty city of Omashu!" Mattias was exhasperated, he had been trying to convince the man to let him pass for the past hour and a half. Oddly enough the guard had not recognized the seal of the King. He had spent the next hour trying to explain what brought him to Omashu, then the next half hour trying to prove it.

"Oh I know, the great un-named swordsmaker has travelled all of the way from Ba Sing Se to meet with our King, and to give him the sword that he personally requested from you." The mocking tone in the man's voice was unmistakable.

Mattias almost blasted him into the side of the wall then and there, but he didn't need to get arrested just to enter the city. In all probability he would be excecuted on the spot.

"My craft speaks for itself as I have been saying. If you still need proof look upon my sword!" Mattias yet again handed his sword out to the man.

"Pretty symbols and a nice shape does not a sword make." The man roared in laughter at his own rhyme.

Mattias lost it then and there. He flipped the sword into the air and caught it in his right hand. Pointing it straight at the guard.
"Will you or will you not let me pass?"

"In the name of the King, no outsiderer shall be permitted admittance unless the King or his police directly permit it."

It was at the mention of 'police' that shut Mattias up. In a flash he sheathed his sword and glanced into the courner of his eye. Looking... looking... There. Hidden by a large rock formation, a lone man watched the gate. He wore a strange uniform, a faction that Mattias was not aware of. He frowned, something was not right. In a large dramatic flair, he jabbed his finger at the guards chest, "You better be glad that I am tired from the journy or I would throw you off this bridge myself!"

Then without another word he stalked away...

...The sun had almost completly set now. He had seen no more signs of the police watching him. Apparently they weren't interested in him yet. Their mistake.

As the last bits of sunlight dissapeared, Mattias moved into action. Although the sun gave up his advantage, it made the streets of the city empty, and maybe he would be able to see these police.

He quietly slipped down from the rock he was on, then jogged quickly down a path that led to the front of the bridge. A few minutes later he arrived. Instead of walking across he took a sharp right and followed a near invisible path down the side of the mountain. Here was the secret route inside and outside the city. Few knew of it, fewer still would be willing to take it...

cautiously Mattias gripped the metal cover over a well hidden pipe, just large enough for him to walk through. With a great yank, the cover fell free. The mess inside was then revealed, and the stench came out like a wave. A lump formed in the back of his throught, and his eyes began to water. Glancing over his should be placed on hand forward. With a smile, he created a small controlled flame in the palm of his hand. The fire was almost irrelevent, it was the heat that he needed. With a great breath he increased the flame until it was a quiet, but hot flame. He walked forward slowly and the "water" it touched was instantly vaporized. He smiled grimly. He would need a knew tunic. Covering his mouth with a cloth, he procided up the pipe. The reak of the "water" increased without limit, especially since he was cooking everything inside of it.

After a painstakenly slow half an hour, he finally reached the cover to a manhole. He closed his eyes and tried to remember his geography. To be perfectly honest he had never taken this route before, and never again wanted to. Screw it, I can't take much more of this. He reached up and pushed the cover off. A great burst of steam hissed out, but other than that no more noise came. He slowly climbed out, then replaced the cover. He needed to find a place to stay and fast.

------

After a quick scan he had located an Inn with a decent reputation. When he entered, the innkeeper took one look at him, and nearly puked.

"I would say what are you doing after curfew, but I don't think I would want to know."

Mattias frowned at the mention of curfew, but he didn't question the man. "I need a room for about a week, some food..." he looked down at his cloak, "and a new cloak."

He tossed a handsome amount of money onto the innkeeper's counter.

The man looked outside briefly, then replied, "I'll see what I can do."

Mattias watched him go into the back... he looked forward to getting a bath.

(Sorry i didnt post sooner guys, it has been a very long week.....)

Kuabara stopped his wanton destruction and glared at zira, cold hate burning in his eyes. Unaware of dachous lightning attack thanks to zira and his own focus on the destruction before him he had been oblivious to the danger behind him. But the fire lord had bid him obey and follow her and so he would. For now. With one more cold hateful glare spread amongst dachou, sven, and zira, he followed her out of the city.

"Goodbye Zira...."

Dachou eyes focused on Zira for a moment, it glinting with a bit of sadness, then pity, then they became cloudy, for whatever reason. Dachou saluted to Kuabara, his gesture showing some kind of mocking respect, while his eyes burned with hate. Their glares connected, and for the moment, the air crackled with electricity. He could feel the heat. But for now, Dachou needed help for The Airbender. He walked over to Sven, and kneeled down, looking at the boy. He sighed, and dug his hands under the boys neck, and the back of his knees, picking him up off the ground, pressing his head against his chest. Dachou could hear a heartbeat. He couldn't help but smirk slightly. Still, an Airbender has survived. Dachou looked at Zira and Kuabaras Silhouettes in the night.

The sun would begin its venture soon, and the townsfolk would see what has happened to their beloved city. He sighed, and looked around the place, Kuabaras destruction as obvious as the difference between Fire and Water. Dachou looked back at his fellow firebenders once more, and, having a metallic taste in his mouth, called out,

"Just remember, Sifu Zira, next time we meet each other, it will not be as laid back as this. And we may not be as merciful on each other then as we were now."

He used the term "Sifu" playfully, and knew Zira would take his words into account, but still hear the slightly playful yet serious tone of voice he held. If she were able to see well in the dark, she would be able to see the mischievous glint in his eyes, and Dachous slight smirk. Then, he turned around and set Sven on his shoulder, so his legs were facing in front of Dachou, and his face was pressed against Dachous back, he turned to look around, and finally noticed a girl who looked quite younger than him. The problem was, she looked like a waterbender.

"Hello, miss. Do you need help?"

Sven was slowly becoming awake. He didn't have any energy left in him, so he couldn't move. But he could hear, and think.

"What's going on?" he thought. Then memories started flooding through his mind. He got hit my kuabara.

"How could i lose?" thought sven, when he felt a sudden jolt. He tried to scream, but nothing came out. "Is this what being dead feels like?" Then he felt his body shift over again and his face hit something hard. "Ow... what's happening?" He tried opening his eyes but he could. He had no energy. And he was thirsty. Very thirsty. "What I would do for a drink of water right now..." And then he heard Dachous voice. "Hello miss, do you need any help?" said dachou, and Sven became confused. Who was he talking to? He can tell it isn't him. "What's going on? Somebody help! I don't know what to do!"

And then Sven fell asleep from exhaustion.


((OOC: everything sven says is him thinking, not talking.))

"No, I do not." Dawn says to Dachou, surprised at how nice a firebender was being. "Is he alright? I could heal him.... if you'd like." She offers, looking at Dachou then to Sven and back again. They sure did fight for awhile. Dawn thinks to herself.

OOC: Can I join?

"Clear the area!"

The roar echoed out across the streets of Omashu as several dozen red-clothed soldiers rushed past the houses. Civilians ducked into their houses as the Fire Nation soldiers rushed by, eager to get out of the way of their destructive anger. Ahead of the soldiers, several combatants stood - a few were unknown to them, but one stood out - Zira.

The soldiers had came all the way from from the Fire Nation Capital to aid in the capture of the Avatar, but they appeared to be too late. Aestuo had told the Fire Lord not to trust a new recruit such as Zira with such a task - but he had not listened. And it may well be their downfall.

As the soldiers approached, they all halted, before standing at attention in perfect formation.

"Well, well. What do we have here," came a voice from behind the ranks, and a robed figure strolled out, circlet upon his brow. A cape billowed out behind him, and he walked with his arms folded over his chest. His very aura seemed to radiate authority.

"I see your plan didn't exactly go to... Plan, did it, Zira? You almost lost them, and I hear that the Avatar has gone. The Fire Lord will hear of this," the figure said to Zira, before looking away.

The robed figure was no other than Aestuo, recently promoted General of the Fire Nation Army. Whilst still relatively young, he had been promoted not only upon merit, but also inheritance - his father had been a General before his recent, untimely death. Many youths had been promoted through the ranks quickly through the hunt for the Avatar, and Aestuo was no different. He tracked the Avatar with a hawk-like eye and a fox-like nose. Nobody would escape him.

"Luckily for you, we're here now. You, boy." Aestuo pointed at one of the combatants, who he knew to be of the Fire Nation. "Dachou, is it? I hereby place you under arrest in the name of the Fire Lord, for the treacherous crimes of High Treason and Conspiracy to Betray. You'll come with us."

Aestuo waved his hand, and the front rank of soldiers rushed forward to grab the people before them. With any luck, they'd be heading back to the Fire Nation soon, with these prisoners in tow - and Zira having learnt a tough lesson in warfare.

Zira smirked at Kuabara everything was setting in place so easily she couldn't help but laugh a bit to herself. This was just perfect things were setting in place amazingly. As they walked down the alley Dachou's words echoed down the way and his words made Zira grin,

"I do believe it'll be quite fun, next time we won't be in a space so..cramped and boring. Help your friend with his fighting techniques before big boy here kills him. He was holding back."

Holding a hand up goodbye like he could see her she grinned mischievously as well. "See ya next time.."

As they continued walking Zira busted out into laughter looking at the soliders then hearing the familiar voice, "Oh so you came too? Good. The Avatar is here." She snapped her fingers as two earth nation soliders came out of the shadows with a man engulfed in frozen ice.

"He's alive..but barely, see if you can question him. I have other things to attend to Aestuo. Tell your father I do say hello." But when he was trying to arrest Dachou Zira made his men hault as Dachou and his friends were leaving.

Zira shook her head, "They are pieces to the puzzle, Dachou will lead me to the Avatar. He wants to teach the Avatar how to firebend. " Crossing her arms Zira snapped her hands remembering another thing. "Oh tell one of your men to rush back to the fire nation and tell them that Omashu's leader has accepted his offer. We now have an ally to help us with the capture."

Kuabara stood behind Zira as she spoke to Aesuto, the giant looking quite menacing. The young general had most likely heard of him, The nightmare commander, or simply Nightmare to some, the most ruthless, vicious, and bloodthirsty general the fire nation had. And he was currently under orders to serve and protect Zira, something aesuto had probably been told, and would probably be wise to remember as the heartless giant stared at him with cold eyes.

Dachou turned back towards Zira and Kuabara, hearing the deathly footsteps of the fire nation guards, and hearing a commanding voice echo throughout the city. Dachou turned back to Dawn, and gently laid Sven down on the ground next to Dawn, he looked at her, then back at the airbender, as if pleading for her to heal him. Then, his friendly demeanor gone, he set his jaw, and stood up tall, his whole figure rising up to be a slightly frightening height. He was like a Scarecrow in a sense. He turned around to face to General, and looked at the figure, he raised an eyebrow as he listed Dachous crimes, and as Zira stepped forward, Dahcou smirked.

"Well. I am honored to be on a first name basis with you, General Aestuo. But let me tell you. I will not be going down without a fight. If you want me to go with you, you'll have to send your best at me."

At that, Dachou raised his hand, as if in a wave, and connected his middle finger, and thumb together, and flicked, where a spark emitted from them. In that speedy burst of light, a malicious grin would be seen on Dachous face, and then the Firebender lowered his hand, and beckoned for Aestuo to begin the fight. He would not be going down without a fight. But first, before anything else, he would have to confirm the safety of the Airbender and the Water Tribes girl.

(merry Xmas)

Sven felt a jolt in his body. He quickly woke up and used whatever energy he has left to open his eyes. He immediately felt pain all over his body. Well, he thought, at least this means I am not dead. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. And his hearing was a little off too. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw dachou. He is fighting for me, Sven thought, he is risking his life for me. I don't know how I will ever repay him.

Then Sven blacked out.

Dawn nods at Dachou, bending down to Sven. She pulls water out of her water skin and bends it over her hands. They start glowing, she places them over all of Sven's wounds, healing him. Let's just hope this helps him. Dawn thinks, she doesn't notice Aestuo, but knew who he was from her being the Tribe's leader.

You all can just ignore me. I will jump in some per time, sorry for making you wait.

Zaz wrote:

Zaz emotionessly walked down the alley. When she saw General aestuo, she got really angry.

What does he think he is doing! I told him I would him. I would handle it, she thought. Oh well, it doesn't matter. I will deal with both of them.

Zaz approached the scene calmly, with an intimidating air around her. She angrily walked up to Aestuo, and said

"I thought I told you I would handle this. All you are doing is creating a problem. Zira, just ignore him. Judging by what I have seen, you are doing a good job. However, the fire lord has been getting frustrated in how long it is taking for you to capture her, so I have been assigned to assist you. I'm sure this will greatly aid in your quest to capture the avatar."

To prove her great fighting skills, she did a quick jump in the air, and landed right next to dachou, and swiftly jabbed him in the back, causing him to fall down.

"chi-blocking is one of the oldest fighting techniques, even older than bending. And now dachou, I am sorry about doing that.

Zaz then did a series of jabs around his whole body, unblocking his chi and bringing him back to normal.

"now,you and your little group of friends are free to go, since Zira says you can, and I trust that she will make the right decision. And AEstuo, i am greatly disappointed in you, disobeying me. I won't tell the fire lord, but you better not make another silly mistake. You are free to try to capture the avatar, but you better not get in our way."

As you can see in the letters in bold, we have here what is known as "Auto-hitting"
It's where you perform an action, and connect it without letting someone else post a response to your attack. If I throw a punch, who am I to say you can't dodge it?
Zaz, you can't just hit him, you can say you flipped behind then went for a chi-blocking attack, but you cannot say it connected.

Also, what rank is Zaz in the Fire Nation chain of command? If she's higher then a general then she probably wouldn't be in the field, and looking at your character app Zaz it says nothing about being a high ranking officer in the Fire Nation, just says that her family was in politics.
This is starting to look like a game of just one upping each other.

Zaz, edit this post so that your character fits the one that I'm looking at in your app, and if you still attack Dachou then do not say you hit him, but rather your about to hit him if he doesn't do anything. You could be a general like Aestuo, but no higher ranks. Your not in command, your either beneath Aestuo and Zira, or there equals.

(sooo..should I wait to post when Zaz fixes her errors?)

((OOC: I'll give her two days starting now, if no changes are made by Saturday then disregard her post entirely and move on. We still have a story to run))

((OOC: Whoever is next can post now, dismiss Zaz's post))

(Due to the absence of zaz and aesuto, do we skip to zira? )

((OOC: Because this has been taking forever I will give Aestuo 24 hours to post, if he doesn't then skip to Zira))))

Zira had gotten bored once again about this chaos that was happening. There was a obvious look on the adopted girls face when she looked over at Dachou then back at Kuabara. It was starting to get a little too over crowded here and too much issues for her. With a twist of her heel her back was to the commotion.

"Kuabara, we are leaving, come on..we should be able to find someone to play with."

With those words Zira started on her way to a smaller district to find the Avatar. For someone who stuck out like a sore thumb in this place the Avatar was very elusive. The longer she took to find him or her the more Zira started to believe it was a game. As always her arms were crossed as she walked but her words that were about to rise out her throat were aimed to Kuabara's ears.

"We can split up in an hour if you like. You take one way and I'll take another."

OOC: okay, with all the absences and stuff, I have gotten very confused. Tell me if I'm wrong here, but the posting order is

Aestuo
Zira
Kuabara
Dachou
Me/pinecone/Sven
Dawn

OOC: Make it this instead

Zira
Kuabara
Aestuo
Dachou
Dawn
pinecone

48 hours for everyone, if ya don't post by then, then whoever turn it is to post next can go ahead and post.

Kuabara gave no reply to zira, he simply followed her silently, his eyes drting everywhere as he began to reapply the makeup to his forhead to hide the distinctive tattoo there. Even if he stuck out like a red dress at a funeral he at least attempted to hide his mark.

Dachou rested his position, his figure not resembling any fighting stance. He stared at Zira and Kuabara as they walked away, and couldn't help the fact that his mouth twitched into a grin as he saw Kuabaras silhouette take out a make-up thing. He spun around, his face now serious, yet slightly dirty and beaten, and his eyes tired. He hadn't had a very good nights rest since he left the Fire Nation. Despite the fact that he hated every aspect of that place, he couldn't help but feel home-sick whenever he wasn't there. He knelt down across from Dawn and looked at her.

"Will he be OK? Is there anything I would be able to assist you with? We must save one of the few Air benders left in our time."

Dachou looked down at Sven, his face serious. The young boy was willing to fight, for absolutely no reason, alongside Dachou. And why? To save an Avatar no one was even sure was real. But the boy had marched on, and Dachou had left him to fend for himself against the Combustion user... It was all Dachous fault. He was the reason the poor Air Nomad was in this condition. He was traveling peacefullywith his Sky Bison.... Wait, Sky Bison? That means that he must have a whistle to call the Flying beast! Dachou then began feeling around his pants, hoping for a whistle or something. If not, then, they would be stuck for the night.

"He should be." Dawn says, hoping this Fire bender would not hurt her she never had luck with any fire bender being friendly. She refreshes the water on her hands and heals another spot, concentrates. The cool water hopefully felt good to the man she was healing, she didn't know.

Sven felt a cool sensation come over his body. "what's happening?" he thought. Then the memories started floating back to him. "great, I'm probably dead." but he was alive, and his energy was slowly coming back to him. Sven slowly began to sit up. He opened his eyes, and saw all the commotion that was happening. Then he said

"woah, what did I miss? Who are those guys?"

Then he looked up in the sky. "Mr. Duck!" he thought, I can't believe I almost forgot about him!"

He was just about to get his bison whistle, when he heard a muffled roar from the distance. Sven said urgently

"that's my bison! We gotta go save him!"

Zira looked back then at Kuabara, within a few seconds a agent working for the Phin Feng appeared. She kept her arms crossed and grinned widely, maybe this was going to be her big break after all.

"This better be good." Was all the Zira said before staring the Agent down.

The man looked at the woman a bit surprised at how commanding and strong she seemed, "Ma'am we have recieved info that a exceptionally large earthbender and a petite woman have just entered the Omashu gates. They seem to be going their seperate ways."

Zira smirked as a excited shiver went up her spine, "You may go, I do not need to hear anything else." She then looked at Kuabara, "Strategically they would tackle the small parts of the city first."

"I'll go this way.." Zira turned to the direction beside Kuabara, "you take me side, if you find anything out of the normal signal me."

With that the girl started walking and vanished into the shadows.

(exit)

Kuabara stood there for a moment, watching her depart and then snorted to himself. She was awfully arogant and bossy for one so small and weak, he thought. In truth he cared little for her orders and felt they were on a wild goose chase coming here when his skills could be put to better use else where, however he had been ordered here and so here he came. He stood there a moment longer, making sure zira was gone, before one of his own men appeared. Dressed in blood red, the man knelt before Kuabara. "We have tracked the large earth nation man milord, we have had trouble following the woman however." he reported. Kuabara nodded his acknowledgement and then turned to face the man squarely. The man gave a quick nod and then turned and began leading kuabara towards the giant earth bender.