Chapter 78: Nut Cracking Messiah

"Where were you?!" Suki was the first to demand as Nik returned with Wu.

"Would you believe me that Wu actually wasted both of our time?" Nik forced a smile, clearly not expecting his night to have ended in that manner, too, for he had other plans with Suki. Why else would she have knocked on his door last night?

He didn't have anything to hide this time around since the situation was so strange even he couldn't make heads or tails about it. In fact, sharing it with others and having more opinions might help him instead. Once they heard his words, Katara and Suki frowned. The more mysterious the situation, the greater the danger they had to assume.

That fog didn't leave the trio with good memories so they were quite a bit cautious of this— Fog of Lost Souls.

While the trio wanted to set another meeting with Wu, it was Meng that rejected them saying the old woman had just slumbered to rest. With nothing else to do here, the trio agreed to begin with their plans and walked out of the village under the excuse of training by the stream which wasn't even a total lie.

"Alright, see you guys later," Nik stretched a bit before taking his leave, his destination being the prison holding the waterbenders.

Once he did leave, Katara looked towards Suki who began to stretch, too, preparing for the spar. Hesitating for a moment, Katara spoke up, "Listen, Suki... about last night. Um, what did you mean when..."

"I think it's pretty obvious," Suki replied coolly, smiling lightly.

"I don't believe you," Katara crossed her arms, snorting slightly, "Nik didn't give any indication to what you were saying!"

"Does it matter if he did or didn't?" Suki smirked, "It's honestly going amazing, too. Nik is caring and patient. Also, he is just so comfortable to talk to. Not to mention..." Her smile turned wider as she didn't finish her statement but it was enough to make Katara anxious for a second.

"Then what about Michi?"

"What about her?" Suki questioned in return but the more she thought, the somber she grew. Seeing her expression, Katara's smile turned a bit smug, "Yeah, now do you see what I'm trying to say?"

Before the duo could continue, they were interrupted by someone, "What are the two of you doing here?"

Turning around, the duo saw Sun walking out from the thicket with a curious expression.

"Training," Suki replied and continued, "What are you doing here?"

"I train here, too," Sun mumbled.

Just when the two women looked at each other in suspicion, Sun shrugged and pointed at the stream behind them, "I study water for my training. How it flows, to be precise."

"Aren't you an earthbender?" Katara spoke up, curious as to how an understanding of water would help Sun as he glanced at the duo, "I don't believe for a second you didn't ask anything about me from Granny Wu with how the villagers acted towards me."

Stomping, Sun clasped his hand and pushed down as a small portion of ground in front of him suddenly began to bubble and turn hor red. Katara's and Suki's eyes widened in surprise as they saw it with their own eyes.

Lava.

"I also asked Granny Wu about you guys. Just a bit. And she said... you're a waterbender and can help me. So, please, help me," Sun spoke to Katara, "It is only by watching the flow of water I can barely control lava but it is still hard for me."

"Uh... no," Katara replied with a weird expression and just as Sun's shoulders slumped, she stated hurriedly, "It has nothing to do with you as a person, Sun. But I don't know you and I don't think I am too great of a teacher since it is suggested to me how my only student favors his other trainer."

Suki rolled her eyes as she nudged Katara's shoulder, "Now you're being petty."

"Am not."

"Definitely are," Suki scoffed and then smiled at Sun, "Hey, you can stay and watch us spar. It might not be much but Nik did state that seeing someone else bend the element is insightful, too."

"By the way, where is he?" Sun suddenly questioned and the two women looked at each other. Just before it could get weird, Katara made a snap judgment, "He has some stomach problems. We don't talk about that and ignore it most of the time."

"Sounds... rough. But thank you. My shift for guarding... er, stuff, is a few hours later so I can really use the help."

---

"Now that I think about it, that strange voice never did tell me who's after me. Of all the things it warned me about, naming the opponent seemed particularly hard or the owner of the voice is just an idiot," Nik recalled his experience last night and as he said so, he suddenly felt weird for a moment. A strange sensation as if something inside him felt thoroughly offended shocked Nik but he couldn't ponder on the situation since he heard footsteps stomping over the dry branches and leaves on the ground.

Hiding, Nik waited for the Fire Nation soldiers to move through.

Once the patrolling soldiers passed, Nik began to slowly move towards the base. He wasn't the least bit hurried and began to map out the various paths the guards took. His ability to escape into his personal space came in quite a bit handy and soon he reached an entrance near the foot of the mountain that led directly under the ground. It was covered by a giant metal trap door with two guards always present and Nik had his suspicion that the guards around the entrance were firebenders themselves.

But how to tackle the two firebenders...

If it was before, Nik would have felt a trace of helplessness. After all, even before he reaches the two guards, he would be toasted into rare meat and then served to nature on a platter. Even if he did cause some distraction, things wouldn't be any better as it may just cause others to quickly catch up to what is going on and double down on security around the entrance.

But now...

Nik donned on the attire of the fire nation soldier and covered his face with the skull mask before approaching the gate from one of the noted routes.

The two guards merely regarded Nik in silence. It wasn't until Nik stepped out from his intended route and walked closer to the duo guards did their bodies tense up and they growled an order, "Stand back, soldier. Only a few guards from the outside are allowed to enter."

"It's alright, Aunt Wu sent me," Nik tried, more than willing to figure out Wu's status but things went down that instant itself.

Without waiting, the guard on the left entered a fighting stance and punched out a streak of flames that Nik dodged by rolling under. As he rolled, he clenched his palm and a fan appeared in between his left hand.

"Who are you?!" The other guard hissed, attacking, too, only for a furious gust to hit the duo. Compared to waterbending, Nik was more direct and less subtle with airbending. This was only because how Katara would push him to find a more delicate approach with waterbending but nobody could teach him Airbending and he certainly didn't test it on others until now.

As the pillar of wind surprised the guards, Nik reached the left one who attacked first and tapped his thigh with his right palm.

*Fwish*

The scarred man suddenly found him naked but before he could comprehend anything else, a knee to his dick caused him to squeal madly which was cut short by an accurate stab of the butt of the fan against the side of his neck, causing the man to fall on the ground unconscious.

Surprised, and a bit terrified, the other guard tensed up, "Don't make me repeat! Who are you?!"

"The Nut Cracking Messiah," Nik scoffed, "What do you think?"

With the number of opponents brought down to one, Nik easily devoured the man's clothes, leaving him with no dignity and probably swollen balls, and proceeded to devour the metal gate.

He may not have devoured the prison in Omashu because of Bumi's request but nothing stopped him—

"Oh... my. That's lava flowing all around me," Nik sweated as he looked down into the abyss only for it staring back with a sea of magma bubbling inside.

Nik felt the metal ladder warm already and as he descended, the temperature continued to rise. The magma was certainly quite below the prison or else the metalwork would not have held out for this long in the first place. It was clear that not many would want to stay in such a high temperature except prisoners and probably fire benders but the lack of guards did make Nik feel a bit odd.

He had expected Dai Li Earthbenders and a few hypnotizing maniacs but it was clear to him that the condition on which this prison is built would not allow such delicate operations. After all, a certain level of peace and calm is needed to hypnotize someone else, at least, when it comes to the surrounding.

Holding onto the railing, Nik began to walk towards the larger construction of metal. This was a very dangerous location in Nik's mind. After all, it seemed a bit intentional that the earth underneath the prison was dug out till it reached the level of magma and the prison was supported entirely by metal. This reduced the chance of earthbending for the most part if one does not consider the ground above, which will be hard to reach when within a metal bunker, and also reduced the change of waterbending given the temperature.

Although he was only asked to scout, Nik had certainly exceeded his duties now. The reason was simple. He didn't want to stay too long in this strange village where Wu could seemingly call out the Fog of Lost Souls. The quicker he rescues the prisoners, the better.

Wearing the fire nation soldier's outfit certainly came in handy by the time Nik reached the entrance of the prison. This time four guards with a clearly different air around them stood silently.

It wasn't that they were rough and dangerous.

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They were tired.

"What is it?" One of the four guards questioned as Nik nodded.

"I'm asking what is it? Man, the heat is dangerous even to us firebenders," the guard scowled, brushing off Nik's senseless response to the heat and he was right. Prolonged exposure to such an environment was definitely harmful to the body.

"I'm here for the supply run," Nik tried again.

"Oh, then go ahead," the other guard spoke up this time.

As Nik sighed in relief, his eyes widened and he leaned back, almost falling down the railing with a blast of fire passing through his face, burning the side of his helmet.

"Attack!"

"Wait, I really am—"

"I run the supply, bastard!" The guard who attacked laughed, "Capture him! We can extract information—"

"Look! Supply!" Nik shocked the group of four as a barrel of water suddenly appeared in front of them.

"Huh..."

Dazed, they failed to comprehend their mistake as Nik suddenly pushed his hands out. The barrel exploded with a large tide of water, only to be supplemented with more and more barrels of water as they appeared around Nik, smashed into the four shocked guards. Huffing slightly, Nik didn't give them the opportunity to rise as the water turned into ice. The temperature of the surroundings made sure of ice melting just as quickly as it was formed.

But it was enough time for Nik to strip everyone of their possessions and strike them unconscious.

He proceeded to kick their balls just for a good measure since the four were dangerous despite being tired, almost burning off his face.

And of course, he did for another reason.

The Nut Cracking Messiah never leaves any balls uncrushed.

More cautious than before, Nik pulled the four bodies to the side and stood against the wall beside the metal door, and carefully devoured the gate. Seeing no response, Nik peeked in and sighed in relief when he found no guard ready to blast a wave of fire once again.

---

"I see," Sun frowned as he looked at the two women resting. Although Katara and Suki hadn't gone all out to save some energy should Sun suddenly attack them, their spar was definitely true and a solid one, especially how Suki had seemed to trigger Katara a bit by meaningful giggles and gaze.

This allowed Sun to watch Katara bending the water quite well and he realized many things he lacked. First, he was wrong to think of lava as water just because the two share the similarity of flowing.

Lava is viscous. It flows slower and the most potent thing about lava is during the eruption of a volcano.

But it was also by constantly questioning and inquiring about things did Sun manage to understand the duo.

"Thank you for the presentation," Sun bowed slightly but Suki waved her hands, "Now, now, don't be so eager to leave. Would you mind answering something?"

"If I can, no, I won't mind," Sun nodded.

"We are looking for Katara's father. Go on, describe him to Sun," Suki looked at Katara who nodded eventually.

"Right, um... I haven't seen my father in a long time. More than ten years now," Katara sighed sadly, "So the description might not simply match him but—"

"Please, if I can help you find your father, I will feel extremely glad," Sun interjected.

"He was the chieftain of the village so he wore a few bone accessories that marked his status. Darker skin, like mine. Um, he was about this tall," Katara stood up, raising her hand to a certain height, and continued to describe the man.

Once she did, Katara waited silently. After all, the same inquiry resulted in nothing fruitful from Wu yesterday. Wu was clear on the matter that she couldn't find someone if Katara herself wasn't fully aware of and not having seen her father for years, she wasn't even sure if her father was alive much less his description.

"Um, is your father a waterbender?" Sun questioned which made Katara shake her head.

"I see... um... while water and earthbenders are still kept prisoners in various locations for various reasons, almost all of them tied to the hundred-year war... the non-benders after the war..."

Sun pursed his lips as a sense of dread covered Katara.

"What?" She inquired anxiously.

"I cannot say the same thing about all of them. A few non-benders who accepted the rule of Phoenix King were released. Some still stay imprisoned... but most of them were executed after the war."

Katara's eyes widened in shock. This was not something they were told by Bumi. Her breathing turned rough and the expression of shock still prevailed over Katara's face. But as she began to tear up, Sun rubbed the back of his head, "Sorry, I know this isn't what you wanted to hear... but your father may just be imprisoned somewhere else."

"Somewhere else? Do you mean there is a prison in this location, too?" Suki hugged Katara in comfort as she began to sniffle softly but didn't let go of the chance to pike through Sun's defense. It was made very clear that this prison was also secretive and kept from the fire lord.

Sun flinched in discomfort and shook his head, "I... have to pick up on my patrol duties. Um, thank you for everything and again, please don't be so sad. I'm sure your father is alive." He didn't answer Suki and stood up to leave.

Once he did, Suki patted Katara's back, "Nice work."

"I'm sad for real..." Katara mumbled and revealing how she 'was'nt' petty, she continued to wipe her nose and tears against Suki's robe over her chest before pulling back.

"You were sad, and then you realized we could use it and then overacted." Suki pointed out.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Katara frowned, "But my father isn't here at all. We need more information about prisons held by the Fire Nation and Phoenix King."

After all, if her father was released, why wouldn't he return to the tribe. This meant that he was most likely imprisoned somewhere else.

"I hope Nik is safe," Katara mumbled before realizing what she just said and glanced at Suki, stuttering, "I meant, he, uh... you know, it's dangerous and—"

"I get it," Suki smiled, an exasperated sigh escaping her lips, "I'm worried, too... but... he could keep a hold of his nerves against Unagi. I can certainly believe he won't lose his composure against the guards should he get caught."

---

"P-please! Stop!" A fearful gasp rang as a swift kick to the nuts caused the naked man with a buff built to squirm harder on the ground.

"Yeah, I cannot stop. Never knew I'd enjoy busting balls this much... really, I understand why Esta loved busting our balls this much now."

The amused voice hummed in response as a ferocious strike for the folded fan sent the man unconscious.

***

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