A Joke
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Avatar: Awakened Gamer
🕑 Added 2022-04-28 13:57:45 +0000 UTCChapter 115 - Meeting Of The Original Crew
***
"Yes," in the end she agreed. There was uncertainty in her voice, but she agreed. "But I will still hold you to your deal," she pointed at Sokka. "Convince my father that it's okay to fight against the Fire Nation like this."
"Jeez, can't you go easy on me?" Sokka asked, already knowing the answer as a small smile came to his face.
"No, you did tell me that being selfish is okay." Toph insisted.
"Here he goes, teaching young kids the wrong lessons again," whispered Katara.
Sokka heard his sister, what she said wasn’t necessarily untrue. But he did feel more comfortable with people who had some greed, knowing what they wanted and giving it to them. This was how people could work together and lower the chance of betrayal.
After patting toph’s head, and her pushing his hand away immediately. Sokka jumped over the wall, but after doing so, his head popped over it once more. “I’m going to talk to your father right now.”
He quickly walked to the front entrance, with his mind culminating on what he would say and how to convince Toph’s father. Sokka also had another agenda by leaving right now, hopefully, his sister and Toph would learn to get along, but that wasn’t something he could force on others.
***
On Ba Sing Se, the Generals of the army had all gathered here.
They were big men, with study builds, and amongst the best earthbenders in the kingdom. The aura they exuded was of battle experience and fearsome. Being face to face with death often does that to you.
The Generals were all sitting at a round table within the throne room. You could hear a pin drop, that's how quiet it was. Yet the Earth King was nowhere to be seen.
One of them, a man who stood tall even amongst the other generals, frowned.
Fong was one of the Generals that had been able to hold against the soldiers of the Fire Nation and was constantly on the front lines. “Where is the King?” he asked, while his scurrying eyes roamed around the room. “He called us here to finally address the Fire Nation invasion, yet he is late.”
As Generals, they were supposed to follow the King, but that faith in the ruler wasn’t blind. They had fought the Fire Nation in constant battles for survival, yet the King didn’t show them the respect of appearing in time?
Everyone was mad, but not as much as Fong, his eyes were blazing with fury.
The only reason they had even bothered following a King they had never met directly was because of the supplies Ba Sing Se sent to its troops on the front lines. Also, none of the men here wanted their nation to be ruled by the Fire Nation.
Fong’s frown grew deeper, and he got up. “Well, this has been a waste of time, we have been waiting for hours,” he stormed off angrily. “If the King wants to meet me, then tell him to come to the front lines. An incompetent King like this shouldn't be given the reigns to a donkey, much less the biggest nation in the world.”
The other Generals were shocked by such a proclamation, even though they all felt similarly about the King, none of them dared to voice it out. But seeing Fong do this, each of them got the seed of doubt planted in their hearts.
Why follow someone incompetent? The King never bothers even meeting them. They had tried to meet him and explain what the Fire Nation was building behind the walls. But he still wouldn’t meet them. Even at parties where they saw the King, as soon as they approached, the King’s secret Dai Li would stop them from approaching him.
.
As soon as General Fong was outside of the building, his forceful eyes filled with anger widened, as the sound of rattling chains startled him.
Dozens of Dai Li suddenly sprouted from out of the walls and shadows.
Their cold and emotionless faces as they moved in perfect synchrony showed their extreme training. Chains shot out from their wrists and surrounded Fong.
“You fools,” muttered the General under his breath, as with a flick of his wrist one of the pillars the Dai Li were standing on burst into a chapel of rocks. Fong crouched down as many chains intending to capture him went over his head.
Rocks were thrown, but the General countered them too by throwing boulders and raising a wall faster than any Dai Li. “You think some brainwashed idiots can fight me? You’ve never seen a real battle in your lives and only cowered behind these walls. Only daring to fight defenseless civilians!”
The wall around him cracked as many Dai Li worked together, and a net of chains was thrown at Fong. He was unable to dodge one of them as it wrapped around his arm, but the general chuckled as he pulled with all his power, forcefully tugging a Dai Li toward him.
As he was about to turn the Dai Li’s head into mush, the other Dai Li threw chains at him. Fong frowned as he was unable to dodge and his body was surrounded by chains and bound quickly.
“Is this how the Earth King treats his Generals?!” Fong asked as he was put to the ground. Even if he was tied, as long as he drew breath, Fong wouldn't stop fighting. “You fucker-”
“The King sends his regards,” said one of the Dai Li as a sharpened rock pierced through Fong’s eye, and the tip of the sharpened rock exited on the other side of the General’s skull.
Grey brain juices dripped on the floor.
One of the Dai Li took off his hat, showing himself to be Long Feng, it was him who under the disguise of a Dai Li delivered the killing blow.
“It seems like the plan worked,” smirked Long Feng.
The Generals of the Earth Kingdom were dangerous and bloodied people, so Long Feng had seemed to have put them under a false sense of security. People don’t fight as hard when they think they will only be captured, Long Feng had learned that a while ago.
But if they thought they were dying, then dangerous people like General Fong had a good chance of escaping if they wanted to.
“Time we take care of the others,” said Long Feng while looking at the hallway that led to the throne room. Taking out a bell, he rang it three times, loud enough to send the Dai Li hiding in the throne room a signal.
And not a second later, screams from the Throne Room started ringing out.
“Dai Li?!”
“AHHHHH!!”
“What does the King-!”
Long Feng didn’t bother checking the throne room. Knowing that no matter how mighty the Generals were, they were taken off guard and were outnumbered 100 to 1. Long Feng felt like he should have done this sooner, but uncertainties and the chance of something going wrong always plagued his mind.
***
-Long Feng-
After taking care of everything and disposing of the Generals’ corpses, Long Feng went to the cells underground with 10 Dai Li behind him. These cells might be creepy to everyone else, but to him, they were like a second home.
Growing up in the slums of Ba Sing Se, he always had the dream of sitting in the highest position in the Earth Kingdom. But the higher he climbed, the lower he had to go and the more he had to get his hands dirty.
Arriving in front of Azula’s cell, he opened the vault-like door and was greeted by the nonchalant princess who looked at him like a hawk. She smirked. “You look like a liberated man, like someone who finally has some power.”
“Yes,” Long Feng nodded, no longer feeling the fear he felt before from Azula.
She got up, chains no longer adorned her body. The Dai Li were cautious as before they had only taken off her metallic handcuffs, but not all the chains. She had taken care of the other restraints by herself.
Long Feng raised a hand to stop the Dai Li from attacking Azula as she got closer.
The smirk on her face was like that of a succubus, and Long Feng knew that as long as he was able to charm Azula, he would have not just the Earth Kingdom, but the Fire Nation at his fingertips too.
He wasn’t naive enough; she won’t be seduced by his personality or looks. But power on the other hand…
Long Feng reciprocated her smirk. “How about-”
Before anyone could react, Azula’s sharp nails dug into his throat, her finger wrapping around one of his veins.
He could feel her cold fingers were like that of a grim reaper's scythe.
****
A/N: I remember reading some Avatar fics back in the day. It always peeved me a little how they made Azula seem like gentle cat. She isn't.
