Chapter 52: The Battle's Beginning

"Look outside! Come on!"

Ash perked his ears and opened his eyes. He examined the area. The other full Waterbenders were slowly stirring and beginning to wake up. Ash stretched and slowly got to his paws. He watched as the apprentices passed by the entrance of the den. Ash looked and saw Cinder, Snakeseye, Leafy and Aimee walking for the stairs. Curious, Ash followed, detecting that Rusty was following close to him.

"Ah, my good friends!"

Ash almost jumped as he felt something land on his back. Instinct took over as Ash turned his head around and bit down on his attacker. "Ow!" exclaimed the attacker, and he let go. Ash looked forward and saw Tiggerpaka land in front of him, rubbing his arm where Ash bit down. "Geez, pal, why would you attack and old friend?"

"Um, we're not friends," Rusty muttered.

"Anyway..." Tiggerpaka continued, "you two going out to enjoy the beautiful day? Those dumbfounded pups and their furless friend almost trampled me when they walked by, sheesh!" He shook his hanging head.
"Beautiful day?" Rusty echoed. Ash exchanged confused looks with his friend. "But... It's freezing out! And snow has covered the whole area!"
"No it isn't! Come on," Tiggerpaka got down on all fours and scurried down the stairs out to the yard. Ash quickly followed, wondering whether Tiggerpaka had made it all up or if the snow was really gone. Rusty seemed as curious too, and followed Ash quickly.
Ash went out into the yard and grew wide-eyed as he saw that Tiggerpaka was right. The apprentices seemed to be enjoying it, running around and cheering and playing, but Ash was confused. He noticed that Rusty looked as confused as he was. The snow couldn't possibly melt that quickly, Ash thought, what's happened?
"Come on guys, let's go into the forest!" Leafy exclaimed, bouncing around eagerly. Aimee nodded agreement, and the two darted off into the forest, leaving the others behind.
"Wait up!" Cinder called, and she followed. Snakeseye seemed like he wanted to stay behind, and he went inside into The Bending Tower. Tiggerpaka ran after Cinder, looking like he wanted to go out into the forest as well.
"We can't let them go out there unsupervised. Let's go follow," Ash nodded to Rusty. Rusty nodded back in agreement, and they both darted after the eager apprentices. Ash caught their scent and followed it, tracking them. He found them playing in a clearing, by a large area of bushes. Tiggerpaka was shouting at them, trying to get their attention, but the apprentices ignored him as they kept on playing.
"Guys, guys!" Ash exclaimed, and the apprentices stopped to look at Ash. "What are you doing?" He knew that they were playing, but he was wondering why they didn't seem the least bit concerned about how the snow would have melted so quickly and not take its time like a usual snowstorm would.
"Playing!" Cinder exclaimed, looking cheerful, eyes bright.
Rusty snorted and rolled his eyes. "Nice question, Ash. It must've been hard to figure that out yourself, eh?"
Ash narrowed his eyes playfully, but just as he was about to make a retort, Leafy had bowled into Tiggerpaka and rolled into Ash's leg, and he flinched.
"Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Tiggerpaka exclaimed, trying to push Leafy off yet failing, "What, do you think I'm some sort of enemy? I'm not something for you to eat either, so get your little paws off me before I'm forced to scratch your eyes out!"
Ash expected Leafy to back off in fear, but instead she giggled, "Right. Squirrels don't frighten me!" she playfully batted at Tiggerpaka's nose, and he didn't look amused; instead he looked kind of frustrated at Leafy. Leafy smiled and Tiggerpaka swiped at Leafy's face and she moved her face back, giggling in amusement.
Suddenly, Ash heard a deep voice from the shadows of the bushes, "I see you're still getting beaten by animals younger and weaker than you, eh, Paka?" the voice sneered.
Ash turned around and grew wide-eyed as he saw a pair of eyes in the shadows. Out came a black jaguar, and he didn't look like he was a friendly loner; his eyes looked evil, and looked like he wanted to harm, not necessarily just throw insults.
"And I see you still need to work on getting stronger, huh, TiredBlade?" Tiggerpaka retorted, getting up as Leafy let go of him and backed up in fear. Ash looked from Tiggerpaka to the jaguar. So this is Tiggerpaka's enemy, the one he had mentioned before, Ash realized, growling at the jaguar.
"For the last time," spat the jaguar, "It's FireBlade, not TiredBlade!" he growled, and leaped at the meerkat.
Ash expected the jaguar to easily pounce on Tiggerpaka and kill him, but to his shock Tiggerpaka leaped to the side, easily dodging the attack and landed on a rock. "Looks like your reflexes are a bit slow," Tiggerpaka said, "try again, ole pal."
FireBlade snarled and leaped again at Tiggerpaka. Ash backed away to stand next to Rusty, who looked more shocked than Ash was himself, thinking that Tiggerpaka would be able to perform this battle himself, easily without any help.
Tiggerpaka jumped up and slid down FireBlade's back, and he grabbed onto a poisonous vine hanging from one of the trees and swung into a tree. "Oh, poor you, you seemed to have lost some of the fighting skills I've seen last time I fought you. Try again."
FireBlade snarled, "You're going to regret all these insults you've said to me, Paka!" he easily leaped up the tree and clawed at him, trying to land a blow. Again, Tiggerpaka easily dodged, and Ash was still shocked that Tiggerpaka still had no injuries on him. Tiggerpaka looked like he wasn't tired at all. FireBlade looked incredibly angry and frustrated, however.
Tiggerpaka smirked, "And you're gonna regret you ever walked across my path on that day and attacked me!" he exclaimed, and, now playing offense, Tiggerpaka swung on his vine and landed on FireBlade's back, biting down. FireBlade growled, looking a bit in pain but not as if it didn't do a lot of damage.
"That was you who attacked me, Paka!" FireBlade spat, and bit down on Tiggerpaka and threw him to the ground, putting a paw on Tiggerpaka's chest, "And I've got you!" Tiggerpaka struggled beneath FireBlade's hold, not able to get out, "Now you're going to regret everything you've did to me since day one!"
Tiggerpaka gritted his teeth and flinched, obviously expecting FireBlade to kill him. Ash couldn't believe it, but he found that didn't want to see the meerkat die. Ash yowled and tackled FireBlade in his side and pinned FireBlade, and Tiggerpaka got to his feet.
"Get off me!" FireBlade spat, and bit down on Ash's leg. Ash snarled and let go and faced his opponent. Rusty came to Ash's side and growled next to him, preparing to fight alongside Ash. The apprentices were looking fierce too, despite there was no fighting moves they knew except for the ones they had just saw.
"You're out numbered, FireBlade!" Rusty exclaimed, "Give up now and you won't have any scars." He had a glare in his eye, and Ash was happy to see that his friend had his rare, serious face on and looked like he was prepared to do as much damage as necessary. Tiggerpaka leaped over and stood by Ash and Rusty, apparently ready to fight him too.
"Give up?" FireBlade breathed. He then laughed, which made Ash a bit nervous; why would FireBlade laugh when he was obviously outnumbered, six to one? "Me give up? It is you who will need to give up. In fact, after this horrendous battle is over..." Ash gasped as he saw many pairs of eyes blinking from the shadows of the bushes, all of them looking evil and like they were prepared for battle. "It is The Bending Tower who will be surrendering, not me or the Fire Nation!"
Rusty looked at the eyes in fear, and Ash observed them all. There was too many of them. Ash had heard there be talk that the Fire Nation would obviously have their revenge on The Bending Tower for driving them away from the Water Tribe.
That was right.
The Fire Nation had come for revenge.
And by the looks of things...
...The whole Fire Nation had come to defeat The Bending Tower.

Author's Note:
Well, thanks to Pokemon798 for Tired-- Er, I mean, FireBlade. Ooh, a battle's coming up. I'll let you know, it's going to be a huge battle at that... I love writing these battles. .3.