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This is the chapter of Avatar: Guardian. For a chapter of The Phoenix Chronicles with a similar name see here.


Ambush of the South Pt. Two - Counterstrike is the twentieth chapter of Avatar: Guardian. This is the last chapter of Book 1, and puts an end to the Firefighters as a major threat in the Guardian continuity.

This episode is lacking in the many small canon series references that many other chapters have, only for the reason of allowing the current issue of the Firefighters attacking the South Pole to be the focus of the chapter. Mitros' actions in this chapter have been compared to Zhao's, as they are blunt and rely on brute force rather than strategy and skill.

Summary[]

Pakku finally duels Mitros and Aang and Zuko duel against Katas. Team Avatar finally pushes back the Firefighters, and force an end to their ambitions of continuing their attack on the Fire Nation.

Plot[]

Mitros raised a wave towards Pakku, his former master who dared doubt him. Pakku bent the water around him and froze it going back towards Mitros, riding along it. He stopped just short of Mitros and sent the water towards him as raising ice spikes. The ice caught Mitros off guard, and trapped him within many ice spears. Mitros inhaled and exhaled, melting the water around him. He used the water to form 2 large water whips and began slashing at Pakku. Pakku used the water around him to form ice gloves, which he used to block many of the slashes. He began backing up and once he was at a safe distance, he fired the gloves at Mitros. The force of the impact knocked Mitros down. Mitros kicked back forming two water blades with his feet and sending them towards Pakku. Pakku sent the water into the sky and dispersed it, leaving him covered in a fog.

Aang began pushing many Firefighters back at once with Airbending, growing tired of the constant attacks. He formed an air sphere between his hands and began swinging it back and forth, knocking away many Firefighters. One formed an ice sword and charged Aang. Aang quickly drew his sword hilt and threw him to the other side of the battle, knowing Sokka could deal with him easily. As many Firefighters in one area began getting up after his attacks, Aang knocked them out by blasting them with a wind current into an ice wall. "You guys don't give up, do you?" Aang noted. More Firefighters got up behind Aang, and began forming various water weapons. Aang quickly turned around and pushed a wave of snow at them, freezing it on contact. They began melting the ice and one slashed a water whip at Aang. Aang deflected the whip into another Firefighter.

As he hit the ground, Zuko fought his way through the crowd to reach Aang's side of the battlefield. "Hey Aang." he said while blasting a Firefighter. "These guys are getting a little too redundant. Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The look in his eyes caused Aang to immediately understand his point. The two began swiping at Firefighters in unison, mirroring each other's motions while attacking in a circle. Eventually, they stopped the attack by meeting on the other side of the circle and thrusting their fists together, creating a vertical arc of flame. "That ancient form worked really well."

Katas sees the arc of flame. He rides the ice around him and arrives near Aang and Zuko, letting the remaining ice he was on moments before fly at them. Aang deflects the ice while Zuko sends a fire blast at him. Katas sidesteps and sends ice spikes through the air at the two. Aang melts them before they get close and creates an air scooter which he uses to get closer to Katas before getting off of the ball and letting it collide with Katas. Katas sinks into the ice and appears behind Aang and uses a water jet to knock him into the air. Aang catches himself by creating an air dome to stabilize himself before creating a water spout. He quickly descends and uses the water to attack Katas, who is temporarily overwhelmed and knocked over only to be attacked by Zuko. Katas creates an ice wall in front of him to block the attacks and sends the wall moving forward towards Zuko. Zuko uses a massive fire blast to melt the ice and attack at the same time.

Zuko stops his attack, and Aang arrives at his side looking for Katas. "Where did he go?"

Katas arrives from the snow beneath him and attacks the two, but is stopped in his tracks. Zuko is between Aang and Katas, and notices ice creeping up his legs. Katas smiles, only to have Aang begin pulling the ice down. The two begin a struggle to either freeze or save Zuko. The two are too busy to notice Zuko begin swinging his arms in a circular motion, creating sparks at his fingertips. When he thrust his two finger forward a lightning bolt hit Katas directly in the chest, forcing his body back and onto the ground, never to rise again.

Zuko looked at the body, waiting for a reaction. "Well, I guess that's over." Some ice spears flew past his head, realizing that there was still a battle happening. He shot down a few more ice spears before shooting a fire blast at the group of attacking Firefighters.

Mitros was riding a wave of ice around Pakku, who was spinning while deflecting attacks. Pakku sent a water blade slicing through Mitros' ice wave, knocking him down. Pakku then formed a massive water spout, rising off of the ground while sending ice spikes towards the other Firefighters. Pakku then froze the spout around him while he pulled up a massive amount of water from the ground. Mitros looked up to see Pakku creating a massive water drill aimed at him. "This is your last chance Mitros, leave now!"

Mitros jumped up into a fighting stance, freezing his feet to the ground and preparing to counterattack. Pakku relents and sends the drill spiraling at Mitros, who remains in place. He tries freezing the water before it hits him, but doesn't manage to deflect all of it. When the mist clears, he is still standing, with cuts all over his face and arms. "You'll have to do better than that Pakku!" He then draws his katanas and begins swiping at Pakku, still suspended in the air. Pakku liquefies the spout and dodges all of the water blades with ease before lowering to the ground and whipping the water at Mitros. The whip hits him and knocks him into a nearby building. Pakku looks at the building for a few moments, waiting for motion. After he is convinced that there is none, he stands up straight and turns away from his former student. At that moment, Mitros emerges a few feet from him out of the ice and throws a punch towards Pakku with an ice covered hand. Pakku liquefies the ice and uses the water to bring Mitros' hand to the ground.

"You have gotten better Mitros. I'm impressed. Too bad you still can't fight better than a turtle seal."

Mitros' temper flared at this, and he used his free hand to send a massive swipe of water at Pakku. Pakku quickly sidestepped before kicking up a wave of snow at Mitros, sending him back onto the ground. Mitros frees himself and throws himself back towards Pakku.

Katara continues her assault, using all the snow around her to form massive waves which she uses to knock away all of the Firefighters in her path. Sokka is close behind her, taking out as many as he can without slowing Katara down. Out of no where, an ice wall appears in front of Sokka. Sokka falls to the ground in shock. "What was that?"

Ice spike rain

Ice spikes rain down on Sokka

Numerous ice spikes shatter upon impacting the wall, allowing Sokka to know what the wall was for. Katara looks back at him, only to yell "Sokka, this is no time to lie down! Get up and help me!" Sokka quickly gets to his feet and throws his boomerang at an advancing Firefighter. The Firefighter dodges, forms a water whip and prepares to attack Katara. At that moment, the boomerang strikes him in the back of the head, knocking him out cold.

Pakku began swirling his arms around, creating many water blades out of the surrounding ice. Mitros brushed these away while continuing his advance. Pakku then swirls his leg up, pulling up a mass of water which crashed on Mitros' face. Mitros gets back up to his feet while pushing the water forward at an incredible speed. Pakku sends the wave around him and turns it into a mist.

Mitros looks around him repeatedly, trying to determine Pakku's location. "Come out you coward!" he screamed into the mist.

A voice called out from a few feet away from him. "Quick enough for you?" before Mitros was encased in an ice sheet. Mitros quickly broke free only for him to be cut across the face with a water whip. Mitros quickly dips his hand into the snow and sends small ice darts into Pakku's shoulder. Pakku staggers back quickly and heals the wound in a mere moment. "I genuinely thought you could do better than that."

"I can!" Mitros screams while pulling the water from around Pakku's feet, knocking him over. Pakku gets up while freezing Mitros' arm and pulling the ice around it to the ground. Mitros frees his arm and picks up his katanas. He slashes at Pakku with the blades, with Pakku avoiding them quickly. Pakku quickly sends an ice spike into Mitros' leg, stalling him for a few seconds, but is surprised when he continues attacking. Pakku is sent back 10 feet by a water jet created by Mitros, but regains his balance and sends an array of ice disks at him. Mitros uses his katanas to cut through them and sends a water blade at Pakku's feet. After he stopped the blade, Pakku had lost sight of Mitros. Mitros is hovering in the air on a water spout, pulling a massive amount of water from the surrounding ice. He swipes his hand down, sending a massive blade of water down at Pakku. Pakku creates an ice pillar under him, going towards the blade. He diverts the water from hitting him while he slowly freezes Mitros' spout. Pakku eventually gets to eye level with Mitros, starring into the eyes of his fallen pupil. "You get too sloppy. You focused too much on attacking. Maybe you're not so different from those Firebenders you hate so much."

Mitros tries to move forward to attack, but notices that his spout was almost completely frozen solid. Pakku brings his hand back, crushing the ice and causing Mitros to crash to the ground. Pakku followed by lowering the pillar he was on, waiting to get a better view. Mitros got up slowly, weary but determined. He created water whips and attached them to the ends of his katanas. He swung the blades up, then down where Pakku was standing. Pakku vaporized the water holding the blades to Mitros' hands and formed ice around the hilt of the blades. He thrust his hands forward, sending the blades into Mitros' chest. Mitros collapsed to the ground, seemingly unable to move. He slowly stands, noticeably injured and attempts to assume a fighting stance. His wounds were affecting him, causing him to collapse again. Pakku turned and left, knowing that he had more battles to fight that day.

The remaining Firefighters quickly fell apart without their two main leaders. They could not keep up their assault, and decided it would be best to surrender. Hakoda turned to Pakku, a small smile on his face. "Thank you, Master Pakku. You have saved our tribe. We are in your debt."

Pakku turned and accepted, but turned again to look back at Mitros' body. "Thank you, Chief. I had to end the terror I started. I wouldn't allow anyone to complete the atonement for my mistakes, so I had to end him."

Aang was making sure that the prisoners were not treated horribly, and instantly remembered Toph. "I've got to go get her." He opened his glider and soared into the air, ready to get Appa again. A few minutes later, the bison landed on the ground only to have the sound of a small girl be louder than the thud itself.

"So, how did the battle go guys?"

"Okay. The Firefighters finally gave up." Sokka said with unusual optimism.

"What's got you happy all of a sudden?"

Sokka looks towards his dad, telling Toph "I finally got to fight side-by-side with my dad. He knows what kind of a warrior I am. That's why I'm happy."

Mitros and Katas were placed on small rafts, by Water Tribe customs for traitors, and pushed out to sea, away from the tribe but still connected to the ocean. As they drift to sea, Team Avatar realizes that they cannot waste time waiting for the rest of the forces to come to them. They must leave soon.

Production Notes[]

This chapter was a chapter that had a prolonged planning process. The Bos had come up with the idea for this chapter almost a month before he had even begun writing this and its companion chapter. He created a plan for a massive battle at the Southern Water Tribe including Pakku to end the Firefighters for good.

Writing[]

This chapter was started about a week and a half before its publication. The Bos reviewed "The Waterbending Master" as well as the "Siege of the North Parts 1 and 2". He reviewed many waterbending techniques used by the masters, namely Pakku in those episodes. He also reread his own chapters as well as some chapters from Avatar: Wanted to come up with ideas for the Waterbending battles. The Bos also planned ahead, incorporating Zuko's use of lightning into a chapter in the middle of Book 2.

Reception[]

Reviews for Counterstrike have been overwhelmingly favorable. Themuffinrox noted the comparison between Pakku and Mitros' battle and Zhao against Aang in "The Deserter." Stormfire praised the battle scenes; as did Twilitlink, who listed Counterstrike among his favorite Fanon chapters of the year.

Trivia[]

  • In The Bos' opinion, this was the hardest chapter to write of Book 1.
  • Toph was not included in this battle because she cannot see on ice

See more

For the collective works of the author, go here.

v - e - dAvatar: Guardian Chapters
Book One: Water
Tensions - From the Ashes - The Dai Li Arise - Sokka's Training - The Sons of Azulon Pt. 1 - Memories of Ozai - The Sons of Azulon Pt. 2 - Wisdom of Iroh - The New Adventure - Ever-Changing Plans - Announcing a War - Liberation - What We Have Become - Being Assaulted - Flood Damage - The Follow-Up - Retaliation - The Last Stronghold - The Fall - Aang Goes Home - Ambush of the South Pt. One - The Ambush - Ambush of the South Pt. Two - Counterstrike
Book Two: Earth
The Hunt Begins - Like Old Times - New Discoveries - The King and the Peasant - Town of Fear - Infiltration - The Bunker - The Mayor's Tale - Turbulence - Omashu Attacked Part 1 - Omashu Attacked Part 2 - Ursa's Story - Roads and Pathways - The Airbending Master - Evading an Agent - Return to Gaoling - The Mansion - A Master and A Traitor - The Dai Li Part 1 - The King's Return - The Dai Li Part 2 - Kyoshi's Revenge
Book Three: Fire
The Burning Threat - Bitter Reunion Part 1 - Bitter Reunion Part 2 - The Camp - Wildfire - Penalties - Orders - Ruins - Denial - Timeless Security Part 1 - Preservation - Timeless Security Part 2 - Future Peace - Burning Ashes - Reborn in Fire - The Revolution - The New Direction - Clash of the Warriors Part 1 - Clash of the Warriors Part 2 - The Capitol Part 1 - Absolute Rebellion - The Capitol Part 2 - The Final Journey - The Capitol Part 3 - Blazing Passion - The Capitol Part 4 - The True Heart
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