red means FIRE - [ Hollow Bastion - Open to Katara and Sokka ]

[redxdevil]

In the very instant that the half-demon felt himself plummet into that same blackness, he found himself landing on his feet, hard. The brief trip felt as though it had taken only a few seconds and fifty years at the same time, which, Dante would tell you, was fucking weird. And "fucking weird" coming from Dante had to mean something, considering

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[morethanmagic]

They had at least made it out of the town in one piece. It was Sokka who suggested they more to the outskirts of the town to regroup and discuss what they were going to do without fear of firebenders overhearing them talking about Aang or other things. Katara had to admit that for the city with the castle there was a very big lack of Fire Nation insignia, but perhaps they toned it down a bit when they weren't trying to intimidate helpless villagers or Earth Kingdom soldiers. Everything she knew about the Fire Nation said that that didn't make sense, but admittedly she knew very little about the Fire Nation that wasn't stereotype or rumor.

She also had to admit that she was very scared. They couldn't take on an entire city of firebenders alone. That kind of battle would have been hard enough with Aang... and now... She was so worried that something had happened to him. Her thoughts kept resting on horrible mental images of what could have possibly taken place, she had to force herself to stay positive. Aang could take care of himself. He was the Avatar.

"Okay," she said, turning to her brother and ready to pull off the make-shift cloak. "Do you think this is far enough?" Her answer came to her in the form of a man suddenly appearing in front of them. She automatically jumped into a water bending stance, and felt the canteen of water she kept at her side flop against her leg, slushing it's contents around inside. Men were not supposed to suddenly appear in front of them. Was this another Fire Nation trick?

[boomerang_guy]

Once they were outside of the city, Sokka felt a huge wave of relief. Not that they were completely safe just because they were beyond the walls, but it was nice not having to fear Firebenders at every turn. Even though Sokka was still convinced they were in Fire Nation territory, he had to admit that the town was just... not what he had expected. The castle was eery enough, even without smoke and fire rising from its towers. Whatever. They hadn't exactly spent a lot of time in the Fire Nation and neither of them were experts. It didn't matter. The Fire Nation was bad. That's all that they needed to know.

So far, Momo had taken everything in stride. He had fallen asleep long ago underneath Katara's 'cloak'.

Sokka was just about to reply that they had reached a satisfactory spot, when a swirl of dark wind appeared before them and a stranger clad in red appeared out of no where. "Whoa!" Sokka yelped and jumped back. Surprised for only moment, Sokka'a boomerang was in hand within seconds as he assumed his own fighting stance.

With the commotion, Momo lept out from his hidden spot, screeching in surprise, and took flight.

[redxdevil]

Dante was far less impressed by the appearance two, random ankle-biters right in front of him. He yawned and stretched his arms over his head, sheathing Rebellion again. If two squirts wanted to fight or something, he wasn't going to take them on with a sword.

It wasn't like he was Vergil or anything. Grabbing one of them by the forehead as they flailed about wildly would probably be enough to fend them off.

"Aw, look at the boy scouts and the girl scouts working together," the white-haired half-devil snickered with a shrug. "Sorry, kids. I'm really not interested in buying any wrapping paper today. Run along home to mommy and daddy. Go on. Shoo." Dante bent down to be on their eye-level, ushering them away with patronizing hand gestures.

[morethanmagic]

Katara couldn't help but feel insulted and also very, very confused. The man didn't stand like a firebender and he didn't talk like a solider. His weapon wasn't like anything she had seen before, though admittedly she hadn't seen a lot army ranks she didn't believe that that was a standard issue weapon.

He was irritable and shoved them aside as if they were kids. Then again, this was probably helpful. It wasn't as if they could really start telling him about how they had traveled all over the world with the Avatar.

She considered if maybe they should play the lost siblings and she glanced at her brother before speaking. "Actually," she said, hoping that she cut off any reaction Sokka might have to being treated such a way (he could get carried away sometimes, but he had to be aware that they were in great danger). "We sort of got lost. It's our first time in this town, can you help us?"

Maybe she should offer to pay for his services as a guide? Though she wasn't sure if he would take Earth Kingdom money, and that was all that they had.

[boomerang_guy]

Ugh. How dare he insult them. They weren't kids! Sokka's hand tightened on his weapon, ready to show this nasty Firebender what he was really made of.

Sokka was just about to open his mouth to tell the stranger this when Katara cut him off with her innocent plea. It was then that he realized their blue clothing was still covered by their raggedy cloaks. They could still play this off. He lowered his boomerang, but kept it at his side in case the Firebender wanted start any trouble.

"Yeah. Lost," he said tersely. Okay. So maybe this guy will just give them directions and they could be off to rest and regroup. Just gotta act natural.

It was then that the curious little lemur decided to check things out for himself. Momo circled overhead and then swooped down to land right on the stranger's head.

[redxdevil]

Lost. And they were looking to the random guy with the huge broadsword who had just fallen from the sky for help. Needless to say, the first answer they received was Dante's patented "WTF" face.

"What the hell is wrong with you kids, nowadays?" he wondered aloud. "A strange guy falls out of the sky, and you're just willing to trust him with your lives? Besides." The half-demon snorted. "Do I look like I have any clue where the fuck I am?"

Such a good role model. Really.

Dante wasn't a bad guy. Really, he wasn't, but how the hell was he supposed to show these kids around a town that he'd never been to before? Even if he'd been good pals with the dictator of this stupid place, he wouldn't have had the time. He had heartless bitches to toast and black-cloaked emo kids to curb.

Of course, it was at this moment, that a fucking lemur decided to appear out of nowhere and land right on top of his head.

"What the fucking fuck?!" Dante yelled immediately, reflexively whipping out Ivory, ready to blow the thing into the next world as he reached up to try and grab the thing by the neck.

[morethanmagic]

"Don't hurt him!" Katara said as she rushed forward to take Momo from the man. Momo didn't struggle, but he did make a curious sound and look at the gun. He had never seen one before and neither had Katara or her brother. They simply didn't have that kind of technology on their world. She wasn't aware of the danger it might have, only that this stranger very clearly did not like having bat-lemurs on his head. "He didn't mean anything, and I thought that whatever you just did was a new firebending move." She just wanted their pet back, if he got hurt she didn't know how Aang would react.

[boomerang_guy]

"Hey! Get your hands off of him!" The man had some sort of... stick... club thing. But the sword was out of his hands, and hopefully Momo was enough of a distraction for an opening. Sokka lunged toward the stranger along with his sister. He was too close for a good boomerang throw so he used it as a melee weapon instead.

[redxdevil]

"Fire-whating?" Dante's expression had to be priceless as he looked down at the girl like she had about three, extra heads. The lightning quick draw of Ivory had been something of a knee-jerk reaction to something small and Heartless-sized leaping at him, and he hadn't intended on actually shooting the lemur unless it pestered him further. So, he let the girl snatch the creature from his hand without much of a fuss. Of course, the boyscout decided to play hero and charge at him with...

...a boomerang?

One hand shot up at the last second to catch the kid's hand in his own, his curious expression melting into a somewhat amused one as he waved the handgun near the kid's face.

"I don't know where you come from, kid. Probably some other world seeing as though you're apparently of the elusive and rare breed of fucking retard, but where I come from, it's generally not a good idea to charge a guy with a gun." Dante paused, thinking on this generous advice for a moment. "At least not when it's me. And not when you've got a boomerang."

[morethanmagic]

"Another... what?" Katara asked, frowning. Did the Fire Nation consider the other Nations completely different worlds. That didn't seem right to her. "Gun?" she asked again. She had never heard of a gun and it seemed like this guy had never heard of firebending... unless it was a trick. Maybe they knew who she and her brother were! And now he had Sokka in his hands.

"Please don't hurt my brother," she said, playing the meek girl. If he actually went to hurt Sokka she would have to water bend though, so she set Momo down, who promptly skidded around her legs to hide behind her. She put her hands out, steadying her legs and praying that he didn't notice she was in her waterbending stance.

[boomerang_guy]

Sokka - paying no attention to the conversation whatsoever - struggled to free his arm so he could take another swing at the Firebender. At least Momo was safely out of reach. Why wasn't Katara attacking? She was supposedly a waterbending master now, so where were the special water effects? There was only one enemy; they could take him!

[redxdevil]

Dante held fast to the kids arm, paying him not a single whit of attention as he appeared to be even more confused by whatever kind of battle stance the girl was trying to adopt. What the hell was she trying to do? Battle him with her superior knowledge of Tai Chi or something?

"I don't intend to hurt your brother," the half-demon sighed with another exaggerated roll of his eyes. This was why he didn't like to deal with kids. "I'm just teachin' the anklebiter a lesson about the dangers of charging me with a boomerang. As for guns?" If the squirts were really from another world, they might honestly be confused.

Demonstration time.

Dante twirled the gun in his free expertly before pointing it decidedly away from the struggling kid and his group. The trigger was pulled as a loud noise erupted from the barrel and a bullet when flying into the distance.

"That's a gun. And also why you don't want to charge me with a boomerang in a nutshell."

[morethanmagic]

The very loud sound shocked Katara, pulling at her bones. She put her hands over her ears. It sounded like an explosion, or a fire work, only that he had it in his hand. Momo shrieked and took to the sky, disappearing somewhere for the time being (at least until he forgot why he was hiding anyway).

If the Fire Nation had come up with something that could put firework powder inside of a little metal weapon... It was a scary thought. She didn't know how it worked but she also wasn't in the mood to ask questions. She could either water bend and give herself away to a potentially very dangerous enemy or keep playing dumb. Right now this man was mildly irritated but he wasn't actually attacking them. She was mostly at a loss though. She had already lost her water bending stance just by covering her ears. There were even still ringing. She felt like she had lost some important inner balance and with bending balance was everything.

She looked at Sokka, very concerned about him since he had been closer to the 'gun' then she had.

[boomerang_guy]

The entire course of the interaction was lost on Sokka as he intently focused on flailing wildly in an attempt to free his boomerang arm. That is, until a deafening explosion went off very close to his head. He froze in shock and took a moment to register the smoke coming out of the stick... thing. His ears were ringing from the blast and he couldn't hear the stranger's explanation. He screeched and collapsed (much the same way as a child throws a fit and the parent must drag them along by the arm) all pretext of 'brave warrior' out the window. "Let me go! I don't want to die! Katara! Do something!!"

[redxdevil]

"For fuck's sake..." Dante swore as the kids acting like they'd just been in the middle of grenade explosion or something. Honestly. It was a gun. Apparently the little jokers really didn't know what it was.

Dante rolled his eyes and let go of Boomerang Brat's arm as he whipped the gun back into its holster, hopefully proving to them that he wasn't really trying to kill them or anything.

"Look, you little punk. I'm not trying to kill you or anything. I don't kill kids." I'm not Vergil, he wanted to say. Alas, they hopefully did not know Vergil and wouldn't have gotten the jab. "It was a demonstration on why you don't want to fight me. Because, as you can see, it wouldn't end well. Now are you going to stop acting like little retards and actually hold a conversation with me, or are you going to charge me with boomerangs and monkeys again?"

[morethanmagic]

Katara was still very shaken up. She moved quickly to her brother's side when the man let him go. She had to make sure that he wasn't hurt. Whoever this guy was... she shot a glare at him but it was more to get a better look at him, to make sure he wasn't going to try anything else, before focusing back on her sibling.

"Are you alright?" she asked with a soft voice.