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Post by dblade26 on Aug 30, 2012 8:07:00 GMT -5
Dollstop winced against the brightness of the light, struggling to see past it with a mix of confusion, panic and annoyance fighting to show on his face.
"But I don't remember what happened! I don't even remember how we got here after we left the carriage! How do I fess up if I don't know what I did?"
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Post by stratofarius on Aug 30, 2012 8:26:24 GMT -5
A few minutes later, the Police Chief and his sister arrived at the warehouse. It didn't look too suspicious- in fact, it looked like a normal abandoned warehouse (a few windows were broken, but apart from that, nothing too bad). They had arrived there through a small truck-like vehicle that had to be moved by earthbenders (Toph did say that things would be so much easier if these trucks would just move by themselves), and after the two left the truck, the squad of metalbenders followed.
There were already multiple officers surrounding all the warehouses, some of them ordering the citizens to move along. Lieutenant Bo Cheng approached August, pointing at the soldiers. "We got all exits surrounded, and the metalbenders are ready, sir, all of them are awaiting for your orders."
Toph crossed her arms, smirking. "Come on, Blabberbrother, show me your earthbending. Show me that you are worthy of the title of the world's greatest earthbender, eh?"
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Post by dblade26 on Aug 31, 2012 8:07:51 GMT -5
August grinned and cracked his knuckles. "Always wanted to try things your way. Alright! I want teams of metalbenders and at least one firebender covering each entry-point. We blow in there all at once on my signal and use firebending to blind them and counter their own bending since the majority are waterbenders. While that's going on the metalbending teams help to take them down fast and hard! I'll be leading this operation personally so don't let me down!"
August stepped into a stance he'd often seen Toph use that felt right for what he had in mind and thrust his hands out to send large pillars of earth crashing through the warehouse and then launched himself through the resulting gap, trusting in his soldiers to do something similar.
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Post by stratofarius on Aug 31, 2012 23:26:08 GMT -5
The moment August created an entrance to the warehouse, a quick string of events happened. First, the squads entered the place, following August's orders, but what they found was a completely empty warehouse, except for a few barrels lying around. It seemed like it was a false alarm, until the fight began.
Five waterbenders came out of the darkness, all of them wearing red-colored clothes, almost like a gang's colors. The content of the barrels was soon revealed to be water, as the Red Monsoons proceeded to bend said water out of the barrels- two of them began to knock firebenders out of their feet by sending powerful water streams towards them. The other three created a protective water bubble around them, and with a never-ending sequence of movements, they began to send a barrage of ice spikes towards the metalbenders and August. And while all of this was happening, more waterbenders were appearing out of the darkness, some of them carrying more barrels of water.
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 1, 2012 9:30:10 GMT -5
August quickly raised his hands up to create a protective dome of earth around himself and the metalbenders to try and intercept the streams of water and spikes before they could skewer any more policemen. "Dammit! Why didn't I plan for an ambush?! I mean it's not like cordoning off the entire warehouse district and filling it with police officers is subtle!"
Re-directing his anger at the people trying to kill his subordinates, August stomped down to get a feel for things before pushing the dome out in a growing barrier of earth to hopefully slam into the waterbending criminals surrounding him and pin them to the walls of the warehouse.
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Post by Krautman on Sept 1, 2012 11:01:25 GMT -5
"I'm askin' the questions here!" Kun said, leaning in close. "Um... I'm not being too mean, am I?"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 1, 2012 11:05:04 GMT -5
Dollstop paused mid-interrogation and thought about it.
"hmm...nuh-uh! You're doing a real good job! Keep going!"
He immediately went back to being terrified and confused
"But we didn't do anything wrong, we just got attacked by bad guys!"
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Post by Krautman on Sept 2, 2012 20:04:09 GMT -5
"A likely story!" Kun said, slamming her hands on the table and leaning towards Dollstop. "You just so HAPPENED to be attacked by guys an' then you drew a sword on' em! You're some kinda crazed vig... vig..."
Kun wrote down "Vigilante" on a piece of paper and gave it to Dollstop.
"How do you say this word?"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 2, 2012 20:37:38 GMT -5
Dollstop flinched back in his chair as Kun slammed her hands down on the table and yelled, but he lit up once Kun showed him the piece of paper.
"Whoa! You wrote down important police words in case you had to use 'em? You're really awesome at this Kun, I'm super-impressed!" He started sounding out the words on the paper
Um...hmm. Vig-il-an-te I think? Oh, a vigilante! I know what that means! It's someone who breaks the law to try n' help people! Is that bad? That's bad right? I never had to ask Mama whether that was bad or not." The boy seemed slightly nervous, but went back to his suspect routine anyway
"That's really how it happened! They were looking at us all creepy n' one guy had a knife n' then they grabbed onto Ma-I mean my Boss like they were gonna do bad stuff!"
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 3, 2012 19:39:36 GMT -5
The dome did slam quite a few waterbenders into the wall, and it allowed for the metalbenders to tie them up with their metal cables. However, this also gave time for the Red Monsoons to realize what August's strategy was. They kicked some of the barrels, and while a group of waterbenders continued to attack the Police Force, another group of waterbenders spread the water all over the warehouse's floor, and froze it, effectively covering the ground with ice.
"Give up! This warehouse is surrounded!" Bo Cheng yelled, holding on to a pillar as he almost slipped on the icy floor. "Ah crap! Sir! There seems to be more waterbenders coming from the second floor! I think we have around... ten, fifteen benders attacking us!"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 4, 2012 15:37:40 GMT -5
August was suddenly much closer to being truly blind on the slippery ice and had to lean against the pillar he'd used to bash through the walls for support.
He snatched up a metal cable dropped by one of the metal bending officers and bent it around his feet to get some steadier footing on the ice.
"Have the remaining firebenders and metalbenders regroup with me! We'll press a single organized attack to subdue them!"
Bending the remains of the pillar with a movement like an overhead throw, he tried to send it down into the layering of ice to and crack it and get to the earth underneath for a floor-shattering counter-attack.
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 4, 2012 22:39:58 GMT -5
August's counter-attack worked, managing to both crack the floor and send some waterbenders to their feet. With their attackers now losing their balance, the firebenders began to regroup nearby August- but the two waterbenders covered by water bubbles sending a stream of ice daggers at the firebenders now focused their fire on August.
It seemed like he would have to once again hide behind a pillar or something, until a new heartbeat appeared on the warehouse: Toph's. The woman jumped into the warehouse through the hole, landing in front of August. "Let me show you why here I'm the greatest swordsman on the Multiverse." She unsheathed two swords, and smiled as she began to slash every ice dagger coming towards his brother in half. The attack soon turned into some sort of dance, as she automatically slashed anything that came near her, all while smiling with her eyes closed, the sweet song of the swords filling her ears.
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 6, 2012 7:27:22 GMT -5
August grinned at Toph's presence as she deflected and the ice projectiles, glad to see that his sister was as handy with his own former powers as he was starting to become with her Earthbending, not to mention grateful for the rescue.
"I was wondering when you'd show up. Your timing really couldn't have been better on this one. So...let's have some fun, okay?"
With that he began cutting away smaller sections of the pillar he'd slammed into the ice with a series of chopping motions and flinging them at the remaining waterbenders with spinning kicks, adding the extra flourishes mainly for his own amusement.
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 6, 2012 23:23:17 GMT -5
August's attack, mixed with the distraction provided by Toph's slashes and the attacks coming from the remaining metalbenders successfully knocked out most of the waterbenders. A few of them noticed that they were on the losing side and immediately jumped out of the window, running into the street. Some managed to escape, but most of them were caught by the guards outside.
"Sir!" Bo Cheng said as his metal cable retracted back into his glove. "That's the last one of them. All hostiles in this building have been taken care of." He then turned to the metalbenders, giving them a signal and pointing at the ceiling. The squad nodded, and hurried upstairs to check if there was anyone else in the warehouse, hiding. "Any further orders, sir?"
"Yes, sir." Toph asked, resting her arm on August's shoulder and giving him a teasing smirk. "Any other orders?"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 7, 2012 19:29:58 GMT -5
"Just....mop these guys up and bring them in for questioning."
August practically collapsed after finishing his orders and had to lean on Toph to keep from falling down.
"...How do you manage it? and make it look so easy?"
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 9, 2012 12:28:30 GMT -5
Toph smirked, crossing her arms. "Long story. Let's just say that a combination of my blindness, my personality and a group of badgermoles made earthbending very easy and natural for me. One day, you'll be one of the only people to know the full story, alright?"
Her smirk turned into a stare as she realized something. "Hold on. All this... life switching. Maybe it's something the spirits did? I remember one day when Twinkletoes decided to tell us a boring lecture about spirits, and how they can change our world... maybe it's something they did? Maybe if we find a way to talk to them, we can go back to normal!"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 9, 2012 19:49:49 GMT -5
August nodded along at Toph's suggestion, though he was still staring at the nothingness in front of him.
"That....might just work! At the very least it's worth a try right?? But how would we go about finding the spirits, and talking with them after that?" He paused to consider the problem for a moment before snapping his fingers at a revelation
"You can use your Achilles to at least sort of interact with and feel other spirits, so if nothing else that should make this a little easier right? But...do you know how to do that?"
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 9, 2012 20:04:12 GMT -5
"... I really don't know." Toph said, shrugging. "All I can do with your Achilles is listen to the voice of the metal, which is kinda weird. It's really soothing, though. It makes me want to close my eyes and just.. trust that my blade will do anything for me."
"Maybe if we find someone that can... talk with spirits?... someone like... like Zhi!" Toph snapped her fingers. "She's the Avatar! Maybe in this universe, she managed to do the whole spiritual mumbo jumbo part of being the Avatar?"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 11, 2012 9:08:12 GMT -5
August grinned at the thought of what a Zhi from this universe might be like though considering how their mother was sometimes so stifling about honoring the spirits, unless she'd grown up very differenly Zhi still wasn't likely to be very spiritual.
"Well, it's worth a shot isn't it? I wouldn't really mind what this universe's Zhi is like anyway. So...where is she likely to live in this reality anyway?"
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 11, 2012 21:49:24 GMT -5
"Well, it won't be hard to find that out." Toph replied, grinning. "We already have a clue leading us to her. Kun, remember? She's at the station. All we need to do is find her and have us taken to Zhi. Then, Zhi can do her spirit thing, and we'll get back to our normal lives!"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 12, 2012 8:56:00 GMT -5
Toph and August hurried back to the station, eager to find Kun and finally get started on a solution to put them back in their own lives. August still had no real desire to be a police chief after seeing the kind of multi-person battles and procedural red tape it would involve every single day, and Toph seemed to be even more insistent on fixing things than him.
When they did get back to the police station, they found Kun and Dollstop cuddled up and asleep in the corner of a holding cell some of the police officers had hastily turned into a "child-care center" to keep the two of them out of the way.
August gently nudged them awake with a grin. prompting Dollstop to scramble away from Kun, embarrassed. "So, you two have a nice nap? Sorry to wake you, but I really need Kun to come and see Zhi with me."
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Post by Krautman on Sept 13, 2012 8:15:57 GMT -5
Kun yawned and stood up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She was still a little shaky and grabbed onto August's leg for support.
"Uh-huh... are ya gonna tell Ms. Lemon where you're headed?" Her face got a little more embarassed at the next part. She felt really selfish every time she asked. "...an' did Auntie Toph bring me anythin'?"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 13, 2012 22:30:09 GMT -5
August scooped up Kun and hugged her, raising an eyebrow at his older sister when the younger one mentioned gifts, as if to ask her why she hadn't handed them over already. He paused at the mention of Lemon though.
"She's here today? Alright then, let's go make sure she knows where I'm headed, okay?"
So if Kun had asked that, then August must usually tell Lemon where he was going to be and what he was doing while at work. Was she his secretary then? Or maybe somehow his second-in-command? Either way, it was definitely good that she was still involved in the life of this version of him. The Demon Sword just couldn't even imagine life without her, or their son. In fact, even the possibility made him feel sick to his stomach.
Brushing aside those thoughts, August went to find Lemon with Kun and Toph's help, and hopefully after that, Zhi.
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 14, 2012 22:44:50 GMT -5
Toph, who was busy staring at something on the floor, shook her head once Kun mentioned gifts. "Gifts? I don't give gift--"
She then noticed her brother's stare and tried to smile. "Oh, they're with... Doll. I'll give them to you later, Kun."
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Post by Krautman on Sept 15, 2012 22:27:57 GMT -5
Kun smiled and hugged Toph's leg. "Yaaaaay! Um... I drew you an' Doll a picture but I can't remember where I put it... um..."
Kun looked lost in thought as she began heading to Lemon's office, right next to August's. Upon opening the door, Lemon was hard at work with filing, humming. "Oh, sorry. Wasn't exp- Augie!" The demon's smile brightened visibly as she hugged him. August might notice this version of Lemon was wearing a wedding ring. "So you finally got back, huh?"
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Post by dblade26 on Sept 16, 2012 19:27:37 GMT -5
"Uhm yeah, those Triple Monsoons put up a lot more of a fight then we expected them to, but we were able to capture most of them in the end" August returned the hug, glad to see that the Lemon in this reality wasn't so different from the one back home.
August still twitched in shock when he noticed the wedding ring, though it was a barely noticable reaction W-wait a second...we got married already in this world?! Then what else about her is different? What if she can tell i'm not the me she knows...
Dollstop, who had been following behind Toph and trying his best to seem professional and indifferent shrugged at the sight of Lemon and said "Hi Auntie." even though his mouth twitched between his usual expression and a smile.
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 16, 2012 23:34:53 GMT -5
Toph soon began to snicker once she noticed the ring in Lemon's hand and August's reaction. It took her quite a lot of strength to control the will to just burst out laughing, but she soon gave Lemon a half-smile half-grin. "Hey there, Lem. How is married life with my brother going?" she said, putting extra emphasis on married.
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Post by Krautman on Sept 17, 2012 14:03:47 GMT -5
Lemon smiled and patted Dollstop's head. "Hi Doll. Did you and Kun have a nice nap? Tangelo should be getting out of school soon."
Lemon gave August a kiss before turning to Toph. "Well, so far so good. Tangelo's doing well in school, work's going well... And crime's down pretty substantially."
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Post by stratofarius on Sept 17, 2012 17:07:21 GMT -5
"And you two are married." she repeated, containing her urge to just start laughing. She kept giving August weird glance, almost as if she wanted to see August's reaction to that fact. "Legitimately married."
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Post by Krautman on Sept 17, 2012 17:46:59 GMT -5
Lemon raised an eyebrow and went up to feel Toph's forehead. "Uh... yeah. Toph, are you feeling okay? You're not on another one of your drunken benders, right?"
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