Blades of Fury? [closed since he'll be paranoid at first]

[failbender]

Who| Zuko and Starlord, Zuko and Donatello, Zuko and Clara
What| Sifu Hotman reacts to finding himself in the games. Badly. Very badly.
Where| All over the place
When| Late week 1
Warnings| N/A

Zuko's response to waking up on a strange metal cot, surrounded by hostile strangers in white armor telling him he had to kill to survive, was to punch uselessly at the air. This was because he was actually trying to set them on fire. Luckily for them (and unfortunately for him) his firebending was blocked.

So then, instead of punching the air, he just tried to punch them. Repeatedly. And tried to kick them. And tried to do a whole variety of things that were apparently not the behavior they wanted to see because their response to it was a rather violent one that involved a whole lot of pain.

Despite that, as they pulled off his clothes and forced him into some strange, garish, skintight outfit, made to look like fire and studded with countless tiny gems, he still managed to thrash weakly, screaming, "Who are you? What did you do with Sokka? What do you mean I have to fight to the death?"

The last he'd remembered, he'd been with the Water Tribe boy as they'd enacted their plan to get themselves and Sokka's girlfriend Suki out of The Boiling Rock, the Fire Nation's most secure prison.

"Answer me!" he demanded, in the way someone did when they were used to demanding things as a way of life.

No answer came, which meant he fought even harder. That apparently wasn't what they wanted to see, either.

That was why, as the pedestal rose to put Zuko, prince of the Fire Nation, on the ice rink, he was curled on his side, obviously battered, and only wearing one skate. The other had either just been tossed haphazardly on the pedestal with him as if some Peacekeeper had decided he just wasn't getting paid enough to actually put it on or he'd somehow knocked it off by trying very hard to kick something (or someone).

That left the Firebender staring around at the massive building, unsure of what it even was, completely outside his element.

Literally. He was on ice. Lots of ice.

Now overwhelmed, agitated, and pretty much paranoid (because there were other people here apparently and how many of them had been told they had to kill, too?) he climbed to his feet and made a few extremely awkward attempts to get off the ice that ultimately culminated in him resorting to undignified scooting.

As soon as he got off the ice, he wrenched off the skate and started looking for two things: 1) clothes he didn't want to die rather than be seen in, and 2) something that could be used as a weapon. He could fight hand-to-hand, but he didn't want to have to.

Then, after that, he'd try to figure out who had brought him here, why they'd done it, how to stop them, and how to get everyone else that was probably stuck here with him out alive.

Comments

The Food Court!

[polyturtle]

A new voice, echoing through the main hall, through to the food court. Don heard it. He definitely heard it, the new voice was pretty loud and demanding. Oh, dear.

As he waited for the food at lunchtime, Don looked up at the slowly decaying corpse of Eponine worriedly. He'd wanted to get the corpse down, planned on it, but suddenly, making noise seemed like a bad idea. A new Tribute, clearly scared and confused, and he seemed to be the only living creature around. Or maybe he wasn't but everyone else was hiding. Either way, if he - it had to be a male - came here, he wouldn't like what he saw.

Either Eponine, or Don.

[failbender]

Zuko's breath caught in his throat when he saw the dead woman - no, a girl, maybe around his age.

If someone other than Donatello had been standing there, he might have questioned them, trying to see if they were the one that had killed her.

As it was, he was focused on something else instead.

"What are you?" he demanded of the stranger. "Are you a spirit?"

Had they gone that far? Were the horrible people behind this messing with the spirit world?

[polyturtle]

A kid. A kid not much younger than he, though Don felt infinitely older by this point. A discernible scar on his face, which he noted for memory purposes once he had turned and gotten a look.

"I...no." Second time someone asked him that this Arena, oddly enough. "Not a kappa, either. I'm just a talking mutant turtle. And...you're definitely new, I'm guessing."

Not really, though. Don knew he hadn't seen this guy before.

[failbender]

He was someone that most would have been able to peg as new fairly easily. The burn scar on his face was rather distinctive and he was practically radiating intensity. There was something in the way he carried himself that suggested being backed into a corner was where he excelled rather than being a bad thing.

Right now, he looked very cagey, though not ready to attack quite yet.

"The soldiers in the white armor said I was brought here to fight to the death. Where is here? And where are all the people who've been thrown into this from? If you're not a spirit, where are you from?"

He was starting to get an idea of the sheer scope of the situation they were in.

[polyturtle]

Oh dear. He looked ready to attack at any moment. Don knew he would have to be careful; he'd defend himself as well as possible if necessary.

"...Panem," Don replied, carefully keeping himself at a distance. "Panem, the former United States, on Earth. Well, an Earth. I'm from a different Earth, from Manhattan. Everyone here is from different worlds, times, and universes. That includes you, I'm afraid."

[failbender]

Manhatten? Panem? United states?

"I don't know what most of those words even mean!"

Definitely hostile but it was starting to sound more like moodiness. He still didn't look ready to attack and was starting to look more like the frustrated teenager he was, one who'd found himself in an alien and hostile situation.

Worlds, times, and universes, though, that was something he could wrap his head around.

"If they have that kind of power, why are they using it this way? What's the point of all this?"

[polyturtle]

"Because they can and want to." Don looked up at Eponine's body at this. "They want us to fight each other for their entertainment, and because they have the capability, that's what they will do."

[failbender]

"What kind of sick monsters would think this was entertaining?!"

It blew his mind. Even his people, who were guilty of genocide, hadn't fallen so low that they pitted random people against each other and watched them battle to the death for fun.

"How are they even watching? So far, I haven't seen anyone here other than other people stuck in this place."

He was calming down just slightly. This information sounded important.

[polyturtle]

"Cameras," Don replied, pointing to one of the cameras nearby. "That way they came remotely watch from a safe distance in the Capitol."

[failbender]

Zuko made a little flaily gesture of frustration and let out a noise that was almost a growl, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I don't understand half of what you're saying. I need to you explain things to me like I'm a child because so far I've seen things here that don't even exist back home."

He gestured upward. "Like this building. I've never even seen a building like this with an entire market inside it."

Not in the Earth kingdom, not in the North or South Pole, not anywhere.

"So tell me: what's a cam-rahs?"

The word felt strange in his mouth. It had been strange enough to realize the people that brought him here had dumped a whole alien language into his head with some kind of strange spirit powers, but that language had settled into his brain overlapping the one he knew as if it was a pair of smothering hands pressing down on the instrument that was his native language, plucking the appropriate strings when needed. Despite being an alien language, it still felt as if he was hearing everything in his own tongue even though he wasn't.

Except for the words that had no translation. If he didn't have a concept for them, there wasn't something he could match to the word. All he got was a strange picture in his head of a play somehow view-able in a small window but that didn't tell him anything and because of it the word itself sounded alien.

And hearing such hard syllables when he was used to speaking a tonal language was just weird.

For Zuko and Dave; Week Two

[actually112]

Aang was bored. So very bored. Also lonely, but he was focusing on the bored bit.

He had been trying to listen to Bucky and not make a target of himself, but he was just so goddamn bored. It wouldn't hurt to have a little fun, would it?

So that was why he was tapping his plastic glider against the ground in time to the constant music, dancing along the floor on his way to the food court. He'd never heard music like this before, so he didn't really have any known dances to work with, but that was okay. He just needed to move in time to the music.

And in the process, make a spectacle of himself.

[shenunigans]

Dave is the opposite of bored right now. Unbored. Overwhelmed, even. The past few weeks have been pretty damn intensive, it's hard to catch a break.

So naturally, when he sees some strange kid dancing around in amidst the terrible that is an Arena, he can't resist the urge to share some of the intensiveness with him. Really, it's out of the goodness of his heart, he thinks sobering him by scaring him might get him to keep his dancing to the shadows.

He slinks up behind Aang, his saber in his hand despite the fact that he has no intention of using it on the weirdo. His free hand is reaching out, aiming to grab Aang by the shoulder.

[failbender]

Zuko's heart nearly fell out of his chest and landed at his feet when he turned a corner and saw Aang nearby - with a stranger sneaking up behind him with a sword.

Dave got no warning yell as he raced in. The sound of footsteps was even almost nonexistent. Zuko had chosen a pair of slip on sneakers because they were as light and flexible as his boots back home and they allowed him to move over the mall floor in near silence.

Despite the lack of hard sole, the impact of Zuko's foot hitting Dave's side was most likely pretty darn painful. Maybe he didn't have his firebending at the moment because his chi was blocked but for a dearth of bending, he still knew how to focus his body's natural energy, concentrating on making it translate to physical force instead. Firebending forms were very easy to modify for unarmed combat.

That meant there had been a lot of force in that kick.

"Watch your back!" he shouted sharply to Aang after he'd kicked Dave, standing poised, hands raised, anticipating a fight.

It was part-warning and yes, part admonishment. Bad student. Bad bad student not being aware of your surroundings. Bad student. So many extra hot squats in your future.

[actually112]

Aang sensed the presence, crackling in the air, but before he could turn, a very familiar vioce was shouting at him.

The voice made Aang immediately snap to attention. "Sorry, Zuko!"

Wait...

Zuko?

Aang spun around, blinking at the boy with the sword and the scar. Were they in the middle of a fight? Were they supposed to be fighting? Eh, he could deal with it if they were, but first-- "Zuko, since when have you been here?"

He was caught between being glad and upset that a friend of his had been dragged into whatever this place was.

[shenunigans]

Well, that happened fast. Dave's reflexes are exceptionally good, but Zuko is just a little too quick for him. He's cursing when the kick collides and the force sends him to the ground, using every dirty word in the book before he uses his sword to hoist himself up.

For a moment, he'd thought it was a trap, but the way the little bald kid acts so surprised doesn't seem right. His side is hurting a whole damn lot right now, but it's not serious enough to stop him from standing properly.

"For the record, I was not actually going to stab Lex Luthor here." He isn't willing to drop his saber in surrender, but it hangs limp by his side. "I was gonna spook him cuz he was getting his dance on in the middle of a warzone, it was gonna be hilarious. No harm done- except to me- which you should apologise for."

[failbender]

"Long enough to see you're not paying attention to your surroundings!" he snapped to Aang, in his "you should have seen that fire punch coming" voice.

He was so mad. So so mad. Unless Aang somehow had't been told the whole "you're fighting other people to the death" dancing around not paying attention after being told something like that was careless.

He focused his attention on the no-good, horrible attacker, eyes narrowing with instant dislike.

"Lex Luthor? Who's -" No wait, not the thing to focus on at the moment. "Never mind. And that doesn't even make any sense! Scaring people here could make someone think you're actually attacking and they could turn around and kill you. You're either a liar and were going attack him or you're an idiot!"

[actually112]

"Are people going to yell at me every time I go into the open?" Yes. Yes, they were. Especially since his boredom and loneliness made him sloppy.

But he didn't need either of those things to believe the best in people. "I don't know, Zuko. Everyone around here seems to assume I'm defenseless. It's pretty weird, actually." He's used to being treated as a legitimate threat, like he could shatter a grown man's ribs without any bending, because he could. No one knew that here. There was no assumption of power in a bending child traveling alone, or in an Avatar marked by tattoos. "He wouldn't have even been the first to try scaring me into being more careful." That title belonged to Bucky.

[shenunigans]

"God forbid someone mistake a guy dancing around the halls as a little out of his depth, right?" His tone is dry as he quirks a brow at Aang, suddenly curious about what makes him so unapproachable back home. Maybe he's a secret badass, sure, but there's a high chance he's been depowered like Dave and anyone else special. And again, maybe he's a badass without them too, but Dave likes to imagine he's just as cool.

Or at least, good at running away.

"I'll have you know I'm an idiot, sir." He points a defiant finger at Zuko. "Don't tell me how this shit works, I've been here five months. You're both greener than grass as far as I'm concerned." He even has a neat little Capitol wrist cuff to prove that he's been around for some shit.

[failbender]

"That's all the more reason not to trust you!" Zuko proclaimed. "Anyone that's survived all this before is probably used to stabbing people in the back or manipulating them into trusting them or distracting them so other people can attack."

Which was why he quickly glanced around to make sure some partner of Dave's wasn't sneaking up on them while he distracted them. So far, so good. (Clearly, he was far more paranoid than Aang was.)

He gestured to Aang without taking his eyes off Dave, pointing an accusatory finger that was so accusatory he didn't even have to turn and glare at him. All the glaring came out of his finger. It was a very expressive finger.

"And you!" he shouted. "You wouldn't dance around back home where you might be seen by Fire Nation soldiers, would you? And they have even less reason to kill you, since they'd want the Avatar captured alive!"

So they could imprison him until their reign over the world was utterly complete and all the other nations were completely destroyed. If the Avatar died, they'd still try to keep the new Avatar secret in the Water Tribes and there'd still be hope as long as that child was alive. With the comet approaching, the Fire Nation couldn't defeat the Earth Kingdom and the Water Tribes at the same time and it would be some time before it came again. A living Avatar not in the clutches of the Fire Nation would mean there was still hope, however slim. The Water Tribes were a proud and powerful people.

If Aang was captured and forced to live out his days imprisoned as the Earth Kingdom was ravaged by mass murder and the Water Tribes finally fell, there would be no hope left for the world and that was why the Fire Nation would be better off capturing him alive.

The people here didn't have the same incentive. They didn't have any incentive to not kill him.

"Yet here you are actually dancing around a battlefield! What are you thinking?! You can handle yourself without your bending but that doesn't mean you can't be ambushed! What if someone had a spear or a bow and arrows? You wouldn't be able to dodge unless you saw it coming!"

He was pretty sure that Aang, like himself, could probably dodge arrows, but only if they were ready for it, not if it was a surprise attack. And there was plenty of cover in this place people could shoot from.

"You shouldn't be putting yourself in a position where hardened killers can sneak up behind you and kill you or -" because the stranger might have been telling the truth "-total idiots actually risk getting punched in the face just to teach you a lesson!"

He was livid.

For Starlord - set first

[failbender]

Zuko moved near-silently through the...whatever this place was, climbing up the (moving??) stairs and running into one of the shops. This place seemed to be some kind of massive two-floor market.

Every shop was devoid of shoppers and merchants, leaving this place eerily quiet. Here and there he heard a sound off in the distance, footsteps, muffled voices, people that seemed to be trying to keep as quiet as he was. Every so often the clang of weapons or yelling echoed from far off, from the people who were forgoing silence to fight like their captors demanded.

For now Zuko focused on the most important matter at hand: Pants.

He needed actual, normal, not skintight pants. Desperately. Before anyone saw him wearing these ridiculous, ridiculous clothes. Quickly scanning through the aisles to make sure they were clear of people, he started sorting through the racks, trying to find something that would fit him and be flexible enough to fight in like his normal clothes.

And also something that didn't look stupid.

For Clara - set last, after the one with Donnie

[failbender]

So far, he'd pretty much spent most of his time running around, avoiding people he thought might be a threat. He was letting his fear and anger take over and it meant he wasn't conserving energy like he needed to.

Especially since he had no idea where or if he could find food in this place. There was a fountain that seemed to have drinkable water but even though he was used to struggling through being starving and thirsty, it wasn't exactly ideal if he was going to have to fight people.

Noticing a shop that seemed empty, he scuttled in, hoping to find somewhere he could sit down and collect himself.

[seestheman]

Clara's scavenging again. All things considered, she's getting pretty good at it. Hell, she's even figured out how to convince Alex that, no, she didn't steal anything, she totally bought it and even has a bag to prove it (as much as she hates lying to him, even if he's acting more like a computer than the man she married, it's better that then things escalating to him trying to 'pacify' her). It's her scavenging that brings her to Bob's Bargain Bin in search of a few basic things to make her little hideaway a touch more livable.

Which is where she finds one teenager trying to get his head together. "Hey, are you okay? I promise, I won't hurt you."

[failbender]

"Do I look okay to you?!"

No, he did not look okay. He looked angry and frazzled and possibly a tiny bit scared even if it was all being funneled into rage and frustration. He was definitely new.

The fear wasn't just for himself. Aang and the others needed his help and the people of the Earth Kingdom - the people of the whole world - were depending on all of them. Aang was nowhere near trained enough to face his father and it would be impossible for him to find another Firebending teacher in time for the arrival of Sozin's comet.

And he hadn't had the chance to even warn them of what his father planned to use the power of the comet to do. A pervasive sense of shame made it difficult to talk about. He'd been in that war-room nodding along with everyone else as they proposed another genocide but now he felt like an idiot for not warning his new friends sooner. What if they didn't realize the full importance of stopping his father before the comet arrived?

"I don't understand why these people brought us here, what this place even is, what most of this stuff is - I don't even know what it is! What is this?" he said, shaking a toilet plunger in her direction before throwing it back on the racks so hard other items were knocked to the floor. It was a rhetorical question; he didn't even wait for an answer. "Every time! Every time things start to go right, something else happens, something gets in my way, and I can't be where I want to be or do what I want to do!"

And now that he finally had chosen the right path and was finally doing something good, something to truly regain his honor and help all the countless people the Fire Nation had hurt, he'd been forcibly exiled not from his nation but his world by a bunch of deranged lunatics that were forcing innocent people to fight to the death.

He took a deep breath, realizing that his yelling and ranting, that him throwing things around might frighten the woman.

"Sorry. I'm just -" He made a strangled, futile gesture with his hands. "I'm new. And if I don't get back home soon, something really bad might happen to a lot of innocent people."

[seestheman]

"Hey, hey, look, it's okay," Clara said quietly as she reached out to pat him on the shoulder. Okay, so, sure, having a teenager wave a plunger in confusion isn't something that happens to her everyday, but he's scared and confused and she knows that feeling all too well.

"I know you might want to focus on what's going on at home, but right now you need to worry about what's going on in here." Is there a gentle way to tell a freaked out kid that going home isn't an option right now? She really doesn't think so. "We're stuck here for the time being and we will be until someone figures out a way to send us home." Or they die for good, but that's not really going to help things right now.

"How much do you know about what's going on here?"

[failbender]

He flinched slightly at the touch to his shoulder but relaxed when he realized the woman was trying to be reassuring.

"Someone explained most of it to me." He sucked in a deep breath through his nose and sat down on a display shelf, hands gripping his knees. "I know why we're here, but I don't know...I don't know why. I can understand the thinking behind it - I know people like the ones behind this, but that doesn't mean I understand it." A pause. "Well, I do understand it, sort of but, I don't -"

He let out a low growl of frustration and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You know what I mean." Blah blah show of power. Blah blah sadism, he knew that song and dance, thanks to his own people. He understood why they were doing it but couldn't quite feel the reason why, couldn't imagine the thinking behind it. People like his sister, his father, Admiral Zhao, he could easily understand what tactical advantage their actions would have and could even predict the kinds of sick choices they made, something his new friends were finding helpful. But that wasn't the same way as understanding them in an empathetic way.

"I guess I'm just letting it get to me." Looking over his shoulder too much and realizing it still might not be enough, just stewing in his own anger and helplessness and inability to strike out at the people responsible for this. "It doesn't help that I don't recognize half the things I'm seeing. It makes it feel like this is all a bad dream that I can't wake up from."

It was messing with his sense of reality.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you. You were just trying to be kind."

As far as he could tell at least. It could always be a trap but he wasn't getting that sense from her.

Hence the apologizing. He couldn't always keep his temper under control but he was getting better at it and better at apologizing and trying to fix it when he did.