This is a special chapter because it has the best action (in my opinion) in all of Book 2 and has a big part in the entire "The Outcast" series. It's also the longest in Book 2 so enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do NOT own "Avatar: The Last Airbender"
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Noku, Ito, and Toph walked away from the battle site. They were deciding what to do with the scroll along the way.
“We should just rip it up right now! If someone loyal to the Fire Nation finds it, they’ll deliver it to the Fire Lord!” said Ito.
“I’d like to see them try to take it. Also that I just want to show everyone else; they’ll want proof what we found,” replied Noku.
“We’re here,” said Toph.
It seemed like nothing like it was when they left. Only a small space in the middle surrounded by tall trees was there.
“Are you sure this is the place?” asked Noku, rolling up the scroll.
“Yeah, I changed it a bit to hide our stuff,” replied Toph.
She earthbended some rocks and dirt around and it revealed their bags and Toph’s original clothes hanging from a branch.
“Some campsite,” joked Ito.
“We didn’t make a campsite, we just set our stuff here,” said Toph.
They grabbed their stuff and Toph changed back into her Earth Kingdom clothes. Noku put the scroll into his new and light bag (his old one is still at the house in Ba Sing Se) that he bought from Nanjing. It was dark red and had 2 black strings to close the bag up. He then saw Toph fixing her hair back to normal.
“You shouldn’t fix your hair back to normal, it looks perfect let out,” said Noku.
“Sorry, but I fight better with my original style; my hair can get in my way sometimes,” replied Toph, placing the bun on her head.
“How?! You can’t….well--”
“--Sorry to interrupt your loving conversation, but I need to head back to Nanjing to see my dad, he should be better by now,” said Ito.
“We’ll come too, we still have a couple of hours to kill,” replied Noku.
Toph, again, bended the ‘campsite’ around to hide her bag (which had her Fire Nation dress inside), Noku strapped on his new bag onto his back, and Ito checked that his sword was still on his back. They walked out toward Nanjing and re-entered the city. The festival was at its conclusion and was pretty much over, everyone was calm and normal again, and people cleaning the streets of trash.
“It’ll be easier to get through here now that everyone has settled down,” said Noku, looking around.
“True, also that I’m no longer in my dress,” said Toph.
“Wait, wouldn’t the Fire Nation recognize you then?” asked Ito, looking suspicious.
“No, there were a couple of people with Earth Kingdom clothes here, we’ll be fine,” replied Noku.
They entered the hospital of Nanjing. They saw it rather empty and dirty. There were only some nurses walking around the place. Ito walked up to the counter to ask for his dad’s room number.
“I’m sorry, he isn’t available right now,” replied the nurse.
“What do you mean?! He should be in here recovering still!” asked Ito.
The door opened to reveal 4 men of the Fire Nation. They all had unique armor on as it had more black on it than red. These men were probably elite police forces as the men had the Fire Nation emblem on the shoulder pad and the initials ‘NPF’ on their chest pads in red.
“If you’re looking for your father, Ito, he isn’t here,” said the officer, with his arms crossed.
“Where is he?!” yelled Ito.
“If only you were actually Fire Nation and not Earth Kingdom, maybe we would’ve treated him better,” continued the officer.
“WHERE IS HE?!!” yelled Ito again, as he drew his long sword and pointed it at him.
The 3 other soldiers got into a stance as they prepared to blast fire out. Toph, as well as Noku, got into their stance as well.
“I’m guessing we’re going to fight the Nanjing Police Force to get out of here?” asked Noku.
Ito was looking like he never had looked before as he had an awful face that closely resembled that of a dark spirit, shaking as he held his 3-foot long sword at the Fire Nation soldiers.
“Now, now child, your father is in the Fire Nation now. If you surrender, we’ll gladly take you to him,” said the officer.
“HOW STUPID DO YOU THINK I AM?!” yelled Ito.
He swung his sword horizontally at the NPF troopers, as they easily dodged it.
“Come now child, you can’t defeat us all by yourself,” said the officer, in his firebending stance.
“He isn’t alone!” yelled Noku.
He punched out fire at the troopers. They blocked the blast, retreated out of the hospital by stepping back, and locked the doors.
“Burn the building down, we evacuated the wounded earlier,” ordered the officer.
“What about the nurses?” asked one of the troopers that was shorter than the rest.
“They’ll die honorably,” replied the officer.
They blasted out fire at the building as it erupted into flames.
Inside, Toph was making a tunnel in the ground leading out of the building while many of the nurses were crying for help.
“Everyone into the tunnel and follow me!” yelled Toph.
The nurses, Noku, and Ito followed her. She closed the entrance as the smoke was about to enter it and after the last nurse entered the tunnel. She continued to dig through quickly but many boulders started to appear and the cave started to get more cramped by every time Toph pushed through the earth.
“Ito, help me clear a path,” said Toph.
Ito drew out his sword again and he slashed clean through the boulders without any dust coming out, making the tunnel wider for the people following them. Toph realized that she couldn’t push the last boulder up to the surface again.
“Ito, help me push this boulder up,” said Toph.
Ito looked like he stabbed the air near the boulder as he pushed it up. They finally reached the surface to see themselves surrounded by the elite Firebenders of the NPF and the officer from earlier.
“Last chance to be spared,” warned the officer.
The trio saw that they were surrounded by tanks as well. Reinforcements started to surround the city as at least 1,000 men were here in Nanjing.
“This isn’t a winnable battle,” whispered Noku.
“We have to try, they won’t spare us either way,” said Toph.
“STRIKE NOW!!” yelled Ito, as he stabbed the ground with his sword to make a large earthquake.
“Fire Nation, meet lightning,” said Noku, as he shot out lightning at the first row of tanks and the 1st 2 exploded on impact with the powerful bolt.
Toph launched a barrage of tiny rocks at the soldiers like if hail was storming the planet.
“Don’t stand there fools, ATTACK!!” ordered the officer, as he tried to shoot fire under pressure of the tiny particles.
The elite Firebenders shot out fire like a dragon breathing out fire. Noku made a giant wall of fire around the nurses to protect them. For him, however, got blasted by some fire and was knocked over. Toph surrounded herself in rocks to make a complete body armor suit and blocked the fire. Ito just seemed to slash the fire to vaporize it. Noku got up and noticed a tank rolling up behind him. He turned and blasted at the cockpit, causing it to explode and hurl Noku back to the ground.
‘Don’t think this is my day; twice already I’ve been knocked down’ thought Noku while on the ground.
Toph just ran at the tanks and ripped them in half and then blocked any fire heading her way with her earth armor. Ito was fighting the most elite Firebenders and was swinging his sword so fast at the soldiers; they didn’t have time to attack. Noku got back up and wiped off his sweat before seeing the rest of the entire division that surrounded the city coming at the trio.
‘Oh this gets better and better’ thought Noku, as he surrounded himself in his electric/fire armor and charged at the whole division.
Noku looked like he was a spirit as he jumped high into the air to launch some of the electricity from his armor. Soldiers were trying to fire at the Outcast, but he used the electricity and fire around him as a little booster and flew around at full speed to dodge the blasts. It was like when Aang surrounded himself in crystal armor and bended the earth and crystals to move around at high speed. Firebenders of the Fire Nation surrounded him and he stopped moving around; standing in his electric/fire armor. They all blasted fire at him, but he bended it to make his old fire coils.
As soon as the fire coils connected to his arm, the electricity mixed with the red fire and now the coils were looking like his armor; only without his body under it. He swung the electric/fire coils at the soldiers and they were all struck down hard. A tank was rolling from behind and fired at him. He turned and swiped the fire back at the tank with his fire coils. The blast turned to an electric ball and it destroyed the tank. He was feeling like he was tired and let his coils die away and continued to charge at soldiers to face them in melee combat with his electric/fire armor.
He punched, jabbed, and kicked as fast as he can, trying to just touch anyone to hurt them enough to quit battling. Noku was now looking like the Guider of the Darkness as he swiped and jabbed anyone he saw and that his reddish-orange eyes were now glowing red. He even almost hit Ito on accident. Ito noticed how berserk Noku was and moved to fight away from him. He moved to Toph and they were fighting back to back, launching rocks everywhere. Toph was mostly firing rocks from the ground at them, causing the soldiers to fly off. Ito was slashing rocks and boulders at the ruthless Firebenders with his sword. He also slashed anyone trying to charge at them with pikes and swords.
“Why are they attacking with an entire Division?!” yelled Ito, while fighting a pike man.
“They probably know about the message!” yelled back Toph, bending a dull stalagmite to push a tank over and over into a building.
“They’re here to retrieve it, DESTROY IT!” yelled Ito.
Noku ignored Ito’s order and continued to fight like a demon. He seemed to no longer be himself as he blasted fire from his eyes and shot lightning at every tank. The Fire Nation’s numbers were falling rapidly. Some of the elite soldiers were even retreating from the demon. His eyes were now glowing like if they were on fire; just like the Guider of the Darkness. Ito stopped fighting to see this.
“Uh…Toph…we have a demon on our side!!” yelled Ito, pointing at Noku and having a frightened face.
“How is he a demon?!” yelled back Toph.
Noku was now yelling when he shot out something. It sounded like a dark spirit.
‘Is this how the Guider became itself? It’s a Firebender going berserk and stays in that form? It’s all confusing!’ thought Toph.
While questions were swarming Toph’s head, Noku, or this demon, was now firing lightning from each of his fingertips at the whole Division while still in his electric/fire armor. The front soldiers vanished while everyone else ran out of Nanjing. The Fire Nation was defeated, but now a demon has emerged. He was now hovering a bit with all the velocity and power he was unleashing from his fire and electricity. The pressure to the ground below him was so intense; Toph could still feel him hovering there. Ito backed away more while Toph moved closer to Noku.
“What are you doing Toph?! He’s looks like he’s going to explode any minute!!” yelled Ito.
“I have to try something!” yelled back Toph.
She slowly moved closer to Noku’s hovering body. As her bare feet moved closer, the ground became hotter and hotter. She was now 1 foot away from this demon as she had to surround her feet in thick earth to protect her from the intense heat on the ground.
“Noku! It’s me, Toph!” she yelled.
Noku still didn’t listen. He was still firing lightning in the direction the Fire Nation was retreating and his eyes were now glowing like they were literally on fire. Toph reached where Noku was hovering. But when she grabbed him on the wrist, she was getting electrocuted.
“NO! I’M NOT--GOING TO--GIVE UP!!” yelled Toph.
She then held onto his hand with her other hand and pulled him down a bit. She was getting electrocuted twice as much now. She shut her eyes in pain and hoped that this will end quickly, good or bad. However, the electric flowing was getting much weaker by the second.
“T-T-Toph,” said Noku, slowly in a cracked voice like that of the Guider mixed with his original voice.
His armor died out instantly and his eyes returned to normal as he and Toph fell to the ground. Toph was crying of pain and sadness and she was on her knees. Noku had his whole back on the ground and had his eyes half-open. Toph then felt so weak now as the smoke was clearing around the 2 benders.
“Toph,” whispered the weak Outcast.
“Noku,” whispered back Toph.
“Thanks again.”
“Welcome…again.”
They then shared a kiss as she bent down to his head and the fire continued to burn in the night after the great battle.
‘Geez…what’s up with Noku and girls?’ thought Ito, as he was behind a destroyed tank watching them and the fire burning throughout the town of Nanjing.
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