[b][i]Li Yang - Response[/i][/b]

When Li Yang signed up, his parents were promptly rewarded with several strings of cash, before the young man was promptly given twelve hours to part with his family before being shipped off - Literally, as he's going by boat to his place of 'training'; a fortress and boot camp across the sea.

This facility of wood, stone, and metal, well-placed in the Fire Nation Colonies, was easy for someone like Li Yang; any shmuck who would try and haze him, even if they were Firebenders, would be easily beaten and humiliated by someone with his physical strength. Now was the time for the Fire Nation to use this for their efforts to continue the subjugation of the Earth Kingdom. So, once they saw Li Yang's strength and endurance, his trainers decided to give it their all to forge him into a living weapon.

He was assigned to fight older, more experienced recruits, some of whom were given actual bladed weapons in the training rings. Then, a trainer had the idea of having him train directly against firebenders, and was surprised that Li's body could endure a direct hit by a fireball. Eventually, they decided to test out whether Li Yang's monstrous strength can allow him to match a [i]tank[/i], and decided to have him 'fight' a tank one on one, a metal tank whose crew included an experienced firebender.

Nedless to say, it was a bad decision for the tank crew; all that needed to be known was how bad.

Upon his unexpected success, depending on how much the tank was wrecked, the teenager would be given the title, "The Monster," not just out of terror, but also from a sense of [i]pride[/i]: With him, the Fire Nation can expect a new generation of successful warriors.

His first mission would come just a day before the False Avatar's Awakening, when he was summoned to the local Colonel's briefing room, where the Colonel would give him his assignment.

"Private First Class Li Yang, you have officially been promoted to Corporal; your first assignment is to take a squad of fighters - some older than you - to the forests around the village of Gaipan, one of our outposts in the Western Earth Kingdom. There, a group of partisans known as the [i]'Freedom Fighters'[/i] are attacking Fire Nation troops and the occasional civilian. Kill their leader, a young man close to your age named [i]Jet[/i], and as many of them as possible, but capture a few survivors for public execution."

The Colonel clearly thought Li Yang was someone who would glory in that, an actual monster. Nevertheless, taking out Jet would be a task worthy of the fight-junkie's task indeed... Or would this be an opportunity to betray the Fire Nation? His choices would shape the landscape...

[@Aku the Samurai]