[centre][h3][b][colour=#B094BB]??????? - Lì Yang[/colour][/b][/h3][/centre]
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[b][i]Fire Nation - AG 99[/i][/b]
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Lì Yang didn’t think much of it when he signed up. It gave him an excuse to leave the Fire Nation without raising any alarms and allowed him a level of freedom he didn’t have before, ignoring, of course, the terrible, horrible things the military was expected to do. His parents were accepting of his decision for the most part, though he had to endure more than a little worried coddling from his mother before he was allowed to set off with the rest of the recruits.

Military life would be a first for Lì Yang, different universe or not. The facility of wood, stone, and metal, which made up the military barracks of the Fire Nation, was a sight to behold. In this life, at least, he hadn’t seen a sight like it before. It didn’t quite bring about the same sense of scale or majesty that the royal palace had when he’d visited the capital a few years ago, but that was to be expected. What wasn’t expected was the “hazing ritual”, as they called it. It piqued his interest initially, but he lost that interest quickly when he realised what it all entailed.

Ineffectual bullying.

Of course, dealing with them the way he had was bound to draw attention. Once he was brought before his commanding officer, however, it wasn’t for a punishment as he’d believed it to be. Instead, they sought to put his strength to better use; to make him into a living weapon. For Lì Yang’s part, he was more than excited to be put through his paces.

It didn’t last.

At first, he was simply assigned to fight more experienced recruits, some of whom were armed with bladed weapons in the training rings. None of them lasted more than a minute against him. It wasn’t until the tenth unconscious recruit was being carried to the infirmary that they decided it was time for a change. Since regular fighters didn’t stand a chance, someone had the bright idea of letting him get into the ring with a fire-bender, thinking that would finally put a stop to his streak. Lì Yang couldn’t hold back a cheery grin at the look on their faces when he shrugged off getting hit directly by a fireball.

Eventually, they had only a single test left; Lì Yang’s greatest test yet. Going head to head with a fully-crewed Fire Nation tank headed by a fire-bending soldier. Most people in such a situation would be riddled with nerves, at the very least. Lì Yang was not most people. He was more enthusiastic than he’d ever been, and yet he couldn’t act on it.

Restraint. [i]Sigh....[/i]

As much as he would have loved to cut loose, in the long run, it would only hurt his future chances to show his entire hand here. The full extent of his strength would have to remain unknown for now. Still, that didn’t mean he was going to lose. All it meant was that the tank would only be “slightly” damaged when he was done.

That was nice of him, right? Right.

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Apparently, Lì Yang’s definition of nice was a bit incongruous with his peers. He didn’t even know what the problem was! The tank had still been functional, if inverted and a bit dented, when he was done. And, he’d even flipped it back onto its treads after the fact. That was good, right? No one else seemed to think so.

They’d even taken to calling him “The Monster” after that event. It wasn’t quite what he expected his first nickname to be here, but he was stuck with it now. Oh, well, there’d be plenty of chances to get a better one later.

Then came his first mission.

It was midday when Lì Yang found himself standing at attention before the local Colonel, a man named Lao.

“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 'Freedom Fighters' are attacking Fire Nation troops and the occasional civilian. Kill their leader, a young man close to your age named Jet, and as many of them as possible, but capture a few survivors for public execution.”

[colour=#B094BB]“Understood, Colonel.”[/colour]

While his face betrayed no emotion, on the inside, Lì Yang was.... well, surprised was far too tame a word for it, but it was the best he had.

As he left the Colonel’s office, his thoughts were troubled.

Hunting the Freedom Fighters? The Colonel obviously thought he would find some kind of glory in that as a citizen of the Fire Nation. Of course, Lì Yang had no way of knowing what exactly was going on inside the man’s head, but it wouldn’t have mattered. Refusing the mission wasn’t really possible at this juncture, but killing people who were fighting against the tyranny of the Fire Nation kind of rubbed him the wrong way. A not-so-small part of him was still thrilled at the idea of taking on guerrilla fighters, despite the obvious issues. It wasn’t like the Freedom Fighters were entirely innocent, anyway....

Ah, whatever, stressing over something that hadn’t happened yet wouldn’t do him any good. It would take several days to get to the Earth Kingdom from this base, so he’d just figure things out then.

He had time.