The History of Renko: Book 2 Voyager (Avatar, BoyxBoy)

Chapter 32: Scrambling

In the Fire Nation Capital, on the third floor of the central hospital, lay a sleeping Fire Lord Tahno. Sleeping is perhaps not the best word to use as he had shown no signs of mental activity for nearly two years. With his children away in the Earth States for a big important world summit, his only guests were the guards patrolling the hallway that led to his room.

If he were of an able mind, he would hear the commotion going on outside of his door. The sound of fire blasts hitting the wall and of shrieks and yells as intruders tried to break in. He would hear his guards yelling orders and grunting to force these intruders into submission. Perhaps he would even hear the smoke bomb that went off, obscuring the view of anyone unlucky to be caught in its blast. In any case, in a hospital bed he lay, a soon to be a victim of a vicious plot that had been brewing for a long time.

Meanwhile,

In the pouring rain, Ippei stared down at the towering figure in front of him. It was difficult to make out what it was but it looked like a human with antlers and a long snout. It looked confused and genuinely scared. Did it have intelligence? Was it fair to call it it? It growled a low growl at Ippei bending over to get a better look at him. Ippei reached out a hand to try and calm the beast but something happened.

A person flying high from above dove and spiraled between the beast's legs nearly knocking it over. The person quickly rose into the air and spread their wings to hover in the wind. It was an air bender. Then, a chunk of concrete the size of a Satomobile was launched from behind the monster smashing into its back. Dust and debris filled the air for a moment. The air bender landed and the earth bender who threw the massive rock ran up to stand behind him.

"What is that?" the earth bender said. Once Ippei got a better look at him he quickly turned his head.

"You're the Avatar," he said bluntly. "You should know a fellow spirit monster when you see one."

"A what?" Renko said.

"Renko look!" the air bender named Ahmad said. "Look at those features! It looks like a human that's been possessed by a spirit."

"How is that possible? Only the Avatar is part spirit," Renko said.

"I don't know," Ippei said knowing full well how Fogwai did it. "Just help me calm it down."

"Yeah," Renko said. Before Ippei could turn away, Renko caught a glimpse of his cold blue eyes. He couldn't remember where he had seen eyes like before but they caused a shiver to go down his spine.

Renko and Ahmad began taking turns blasting the beast with air and fire blasts. Each time Ahmad sent a rush of air into the monster's torso, Renko would follow up with a burning blast of flame. They kept it up until the beast struggled to maintain its balance. Ippei ran around and climbed up its body wrapping his legs around its thick neck. He struggled to bring it down. Eventually, it seemed the monster had had enough. It roared and grabbed Ippei off of its back and flung him towards Renko. Renko flung himself forward to catch Ippei as they both landed into a dark puddle. They both looked at each other in the eyes for a minute before Ippei quickly turned away.

"We can't get it down!" Ahmad exclaimed. "It's too sturdy. We can't beak its roots."

"Ugrrgh," Renko struck the ground with his foot causing a bolder to raise from the ground. He kicked the boulder into the face of the monster. It hit with an explosion of dust.

"That just made it angry," Ippei said. He thought for a moment. "It's dangerous but I think if I can shock it, it may come down."

"You want to use electricity in this rain!?" Ahmad asked confused. Ippei pulled out his staff and lit the tip of it with electricity using a button on the handle. The sparks danced wildly in the wind and rain.