Chapter 75: Fire…Is…

(Aden's P.O.V)

I forgot how alien it felt not having access to my air bending while I was in the fire plane. All around, I was surrounded by volcanos, pools of lava and an angry storm that spewed out lightning every second. The ground was as hard as ever and hot, especially to my bare feet. I was only dressed in training pants that I had folded up to my calves. My upper body was in display and a light sheen of sweat covered it. I had only been here for 20 minutes but I was already sweating, despite my physique.

I held the horse pose. Hands tucked in near my hips, shoulders tense and straight, legs bent slightly with my toes facing opposite directions, the left leg to the left and the right leg to the right. I was going through the beginner forms of Firebending.

Firebending comes from the breath not the muscles, then that breath is turned into energy which extends out from the body, therefore producing…flames. At least that was according to Uncle Iroh. Man, I wish I had an Uncle Iroh, most of this shit would be learnt in a week just by following his teachings. As it was, I had to form my own understanding through trial.

My clothes were already packed away in my room at Lucifer's Penthouse as well as stuff like the jewelry bag. That reminds me, I really need to sell it. Luckily, money was not an immediate problem, seeing as I was mooching off the devil. Wonder how he feels by that. He's probably cool with it. Luci's a chill dude, all things considered.

After completing that task, I decided to start my training in earnest. The past few days had been crazy as fuck and I hadn't had time to just grind. Hopefully, things had truly settled down and I would get a few uninterrupted days to just do my thing.

My belly contracted as I exhaled slowly and heavily. In that same breath, I lifted my right leg, stretched it out and stepped forward. I inhaled and leaned back my upper body before throwing my left hand out to the front, fingers slightly bent to the underside of the knuckles in a palm strike. I exhaled and held the pose. My left hand swept to the right side and I pivoted on my right leg. The left leg alternated with the right, by going to the front while my right hand exploded forward in a swift but powerful fist. Just in time for me to exhale.

Hot air escaped my lips as I slightly smiled. That had been… awesome. Fire was… incredible. Like a rush through my veins. It wanted to be used. Was eager to. But therein lies the problem. It was too eager. Without sufficient control it would rebel. Become unfocused and spread out to wherever it wanted to go. That's why I was only going through the forms without actually manifesting the flames. And it was hard too. I could feel it blazing under my skin…

The Firebender forms were similar to Airbender forms in the context of having a real martial art as it's building blocks. I didn't know what Martial Art it was, but I could see it in my moves and reference some of the Shaolin monks in YouTube clips I'd seen when I had found out I was the Avatar.

Unfortunately, the only copy of martial arts I'd gotten From Red Tornado was Ba ghua Zhang which was closely related to air bending and it felt like too much of a hassle to go and start looking for Firebending's related martial art just to add more move-sets to the bending. Move sets that I would abandon as soon as I achieved Master level.

So I kept up the practice, trying to understand the flow of breath as I danced. Trying to understand what fire was. The Firebenders in the show had traded spiritual synchronization with the element, for power and brutality. They had downgraded this art from a beautiful expression of one's being to a tool used to destroy. But fire was much more…

I spent a week doing nothing but the moves and forms. By the third day, I could even feel I had a spectator. Due to my connection with the Elemental Dimension, I sensed a small dragon watching me while hiding behind a few rocks, studying me in curiosity. That didn't stop me however. I kept dancing, my body becoming familiar with the moves. I danced until the oppressive heat of the dimension became comforting. I danced until the air above my skin heated up, becoming blurred and forming mirages.

At the end of the week I finally understood it. I finally understood the reason I danced. I finally had the answer.

Fire…Is…Life.

Those profound words hit me with the force of a 12 wheeler truck. I jumped and spinned in the air. My hands sprayed out to the sides while my feet were aimed at the ground and then, I breathed out. Huge plumes of orange fire escaped all four of my limbs. Stronger flames than I had ever made before.

I understood a little more about control now. No more outbursts of flames as I tried to regulate the flame's power. There was a strain as I fed more breath, more power into the pillars of flame coming out of my hands and feet though. Although I understood more about the beast of an element that fire is. Channeling that much power through my muscles was steadily becoming more and more painful. For reference, The pillars grew to 50 meters long, while fanning out. The smallest width was 10 meters at the base of where the element escaped my hands and over 30 meters at it's end. It was exhilarating, invigorating, painful and oh so beautiful.

The never ending stream of flames escaping out of my hands became too much when the ground below started heating up and melting into Lava. I took a deep breath and pulled back the energy. Deprived the life aiming to fly away and escape into the air. My feet touched the ground far away from the crater full of Lava where I had stood before.

I blinked once then twice in disbelief. I was back to my senses. I looked at my hands in wonder and then at the crater, where boiling hot smoke rose up into the air, from the red hot liquid down below. That was so much destruction and only in the span of a few seconds.

My progress with Firebending was faster than Airbending, I obversed. The only explanation I had for that was that I now knew the trick on how to go about bending any of the elements. Understanding them being key, first and foremost then building up my control by not forcing the element to work for me but instead with me.

Fire was different though. Control was much more needed than with any other element yet not that recommended. I know, confusing. And that is because the purpose of life...is to live. Ergo fire is alive. Stone cannot move without an earth-bender due to its stubbornness. air cannot be directed without an Airbender because of its freedom and water cannot be contained in one shape without a Waterbender because it's whole deal is being non-uniform, sporadic or in simpler terms, uneven. Fire on the other hand could grow and spread even without a Firebender.

The duality comes into play, where control is both emphasized yet not. You can't really control something alive. It as it's own existence. Imposing on that can have adverse effects. Any more conjectures would have to be observed in a spar. A bright smile lit up my face. Oh, I had been waiting for this for a long time. I was just about to press on the tab to purchase a Firebender Soldier as a sparring partner when my belly loudly protested.

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That's when I realized I had gone a week without food or water. I looked down at myself and marveled at how shredded I looked. I also couldn't help but notice that, although I was hungry, I felt like I could go on without food for an even longer while. Was this a concequence of my powerful physique or was my theory about Fire being life, more than just a philosophical ideal to strengthen my understanding of the element?

In any case, I resolved to first get something to eat before doing anything else. I spared a look at a few huge rock formations that had luckily escaped destruction and waved my hand at the red dragon youngling watching me while hidden. The small dragon ducked and I found myself chuckling as I teleported out and into Sanctuary.

Where's my Grango!!

(Hall of Justice)

The team were all gathered in the Library section of the Hall of Justice, waiting for the sudden brief they'd been called in for. Artemis hadn't seen much of the others over the past few days after the destruction of Mount Justice and Aden's disappearance.

Wally was on a table tennis playing by himself, she had no idea how he'd gotten one into the Hall of Justice. Kaldur and Superboy were off to the corner speaking and Boy Wonder, she looked around and found him pouring over the Hall of Justice's computer for hidden files. He'd been... acting different these past few days. Distant and distracted even more than everyone else.

The only one missing was M'gann and being her ever excitable self, Artemis figured she was off somewhere, exploring the Hall of Justice. Luckily, today the Hall was closed in lieu of some important 'renovations' being carried out. Or at least that was the excuse given to the public. Still, the past week's circumstances were not ideal for team cohesion.

She still didn't know what to think of that whole situation. Hurt? Sure. Disappointed? Sure. Betrayed? Sure but that was as long as she understood that they were also to blame.

"Hey Artie. How was your week?"

M'gann flew down closer to her where she was sitting down on the couch trying to catch up on homework. Surprise surprise, being out every night to fight crime had an adverse affect to her school assignments, who knew.

She looked up at the Martian girl and raised an eyebrow at the nick name.

"Artie?"

She asked, making the other girl blush. Artemis still didn't get how that was possible. Your face is green dammit!

"Uncle J'onn has been telling me to diversify my pop culture knowledge instead of learning everything from Hello Megan."

Artemis was even more confused than usual.

"Hello Megan?"

She questioned, wondering what the bubbly girl was talking about. M'gann's blush grew stronger and she hurriedly shook her hands and tried to change the subject.

"Ne... nevermind! Anyway, you didn't answer me. How was your..."

Her statement was cut off when the door to the room opened and in walked, Superman, Wonder woman, Black Canary and Batman. Along with them were each of the team's individual mentors. Artemis and the others quickly gathered before the Justice League. The meeting had begun.

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