Li Yang - Response

All things considered, while the partisans he was being sent to hunt down were a consistent annoyance, they amounted to little more than a minor disruption in the region they acted out of. Just simply an annoyance that no one had managed to get rid of yet. Perhaps they were hoping that the unstoppable force that was Li Yang would finally catch them off guard.

However, the point being that it wasn't the... most important task. So, when Li Yang arrived at the port to ship out, it wasn't to board one of the new Empire-class ships. One of the older model cruisers yet to be mothballed had been designated to ferry him and a few other squads across the ocean.

One of those squads was the one assigned to work with him. Six other soldiers. Four of them were fresh-faced recruits like him, all of which he now outranked due to his early promotion thanks to his absurd showings during training. The other two were actual fire-benders.

The other squad on board was a little bigger than his, also made up almost entirely of new recruits, but were simply joining them by coincidence of timing to join the forces abroad.

"OK, that's everyone," the oldest of the squad, one of the firebenders, said. "So, you're our secret weapon, huh?" He now addressed Li Yang specifically. "Congratulations on the early promotion, but it's still only your first mission, so make sure you follow orders carefully. Get a big head and you'll just end up dead. Listen well, and you'll be just fine. That goes for all of you, actually. Now go drop off your packs in the bunks!"

As the squad leader walked away, the other firebender patted Li Yang on the shoulder, "Don't worry, he means well enough. You must be quite remarkable. Same rank as me, but it took me nearly two years in the field!"

. . .A Few Days Later. . .

Things being "just fine" didn't even last until they made it ashore.

"WE'RE TAKING ON WATER!"
"THE BOILER IS TOAST! ENGINE'S DEAD!"
"GET TO THE LIFE RAFTS!"
"HOLD ON!"

Having realized just how strong Li Yang truly was, he was tasked with holding his squad's life raft steady while the rest boarded, lest it swing away and fall into the sea without them.

"OK, THAT'S EVERYONE! COME ON!" The squad leader held his hand out to Li Yang. All he had to do was take it and he'd be fine.

The ship lurched. The moment Li Yang would have switched hands to jump to the life raft a huge wave rocked the ship, causing the raft to swing away, one of the lines holding it to the ship outright snapping, sending it hurtling end over end into the water. Finally the aging cruiser had had enough, now laden with too much water. The ship's bow began to lift faster and faster as it began a frighteningly rapid descent into the depths...

. . .An Unknown Amount of Time Later. . .

Li Yang would awaken to the feeling of sea birds pecking at his extremities. It seemed they'd been close enough to land for him to wash up on shore alive. Whether that was due to luck or his unusually robust physique was impossible to say. Muscles, no matter how strong, still needed lungs empty of ocean water to supply them with oxygen.

Either way, he was alive. First, one might recommend stopping the birds from pecking off his fingers. After that, perhaps he could find other survivors.

"Look! Another one! I think I saw him breathe!" Or... perhaps he should deal with whoever that was. Should he crack his eyes open, he'd see a small squad of men wearing armor in Earth Kingdom colors, along with a few other men wearing more simple garb. Villagers? Militia perhaps? None of them appeared happy to see him.

---

@Aku the Samurai @Letter Bee

Siku thought he and his family could escape, but of course it wouldn’t be that simple. He raised a wall of ice to block there way, and the other villagers cheered at everything he did. It was eerie. Just when all hope seemed lost, Iroh and Zuko burst through the wall of ice, and declared the false Avatar what he was, an imposter.

Siku could tell things were going to get ugly fast. But what was he supposed to do? He was just a healer. A soft spoken Waterbender who hated fighting, how was he supposed to pose any kind of threat to the Avatar, even if it was a fake one.

But then, something else took over. His eyes began to glow. “STOP!” Siku shouted. The ground cracked beneath his feet. Water lifted from the snow in rivulets, spiraling up his arms. A gust of wind howled, surrounding him. Flames surrounded his hands. “You are not the Avatar.” Siku said, his voice echoed. “You don’t belong here!”

Katara stared, stunned into silence.

Sokka opened his mouth but no words came.

And Kya, wide-eyed, whispered, “Spirits above…”

Siku - Response

"I thought as much," General Iroh said. "Our world... Something changed, didn't it? It's more than the balance that is broken; the laws governing what should be... They've been bent."

Unalaq/Fake Aang laughed and said, "What should be?! A world where the Spirits don't get their due and are cut off from our material world? A world of loneliness and alienation hard to salve with wealth and power? We have different ideas of what should be."

The metaphorical mask had fallen off, and now, a fight was about to brew. But what about the village? Would it not be wrecked by a fight between Avatars, a Firebending Master, and a Firebender?

It also did not help that Unalaq/Fake Aang had decided that, "Very well, if Litle Siku won't join me, nor would Sokka, Katara, and anyone worth my time, then it's best to bury this place, then start anew!"

And the earth and water rose up, crushing half the village as the ground turned into a round wave of sludge and hurled itself at Siku and General Iroh; it was by some miracle that Gran Gran and the other villagers were not on that half of the village.

@Crimson Flame

Siku watched in horror as fake Aang just casually destroyed half the village under a wave of sludge. People were screaming. Houses, memories, lives were being swept away like they meant nothing.

“NO!” Siku shouted, raising both arms instinctively. He didn’t know what he was doing. The Avatar State had taken over. The tidal wave of sludge came crashing toward them, but froze midair, suspended in ice. With a stomp, the earth rumbled and cracked, diverting the force of the impact away from the villagers.

“I told you to stop!” Siku said, though his voice no longer sounded like only his own. It echoed with many voices. “You twist the power of the Avatar for your own ends. You bring ruin and dare to call it balance. The Avatar is not a tyrant. The Avatar protects. And you… are no Avatar.”