Showdown! The Best of the Best

Chapter Twenty-Six

Shrapnel fazed through Danny as he turned intangible, the shockwave of a Kriegbot sundering behind him rippling through his ethereal body. Shifting back into solid form, his eyes turned blue as he unleashed a torrent of frost, coating an oncoming robot in a complete envelope of ice. Another, which ran at him, blades whirring on the ends of its mechanical arms, was incinerated by a blast of ghostly energy that lanced from Danny's hands. All the while, he failed to notice a bot charging at him from behind.

"RYUJIN NO KEN WO KURAE!"

The ghost boy whirled just in time to see a Kriegbot be sliced down the middle by a glowing green dragon made of ancestral ki. As the split bot slunk to the ground in two pieces, the mechanical ninja Genji stood poised behind it. Danny, panting with exertion, nodded his thanks to the android before Genji sprang away to deal with another barrage of Kriegbots. The enigmatic ally had barely left Danny's vision before he felt the presence of another being behind him, he turned, his hands alight once more, prepared to strike if need be.

What stood before him was downright surreal, even under the circumstances. It seemed to be almost human, if not for the odd, stony structure of its flesh. In one of its rocky claws it held what looked to be a firearm, a three-barreled monstrosity with a smoking barrel. Danny hadn't seen many creatures made of stone, but, unless he were dreaming, the thing in front of him almost seemed to be grinning. It said nothing.

"Who are you?" He demanded. "Are you with Kringle?"

The creature snorted derisively. A Kriegbot then charged at him from behind, but he didn't move. Danny prepared to spring into action once more, but before he could move, the rock-man half-turned, the barrel pointing at the Kriegbot. Without changing positions or even giving his target half a look, he discharged three blasts directly into its hull.

The air split with three thunderclaps that were shockingly loud for the size of the gun the odd stranger was carrying. Amazingly, each shot landed in nearly the same spot on the Kriegbot's hull, even though the gunman hadn't even been looking. The first shot left a nasty divot in the chassis. The second tore an ugly gash through the metal, and the Kriegbot stumbled. The third caused a small explosion that smote the Kriegbot to the ground. Still standing where he had before annihilating the Kriegbot, the stranger split the hand cannon. Reaching into his belt, he pulled three slug-sized rounds from it, loading them into the weapon and slamming it shut with a CLACK.

"Hope that answers your question," he rumbled in a deep baritone. He hefted the weapon in a bold display. "Buckshot."

"So, if you're not with Kringle," Danny mused, "who are you?"

"I'm Ed," he introduced himself. "I'm the guy that's gonna help you kill him."

Toph struggled under Azula's weight as a blue dagger of fire hovered inches in front of her face. The battlefield around them lay littered with chunks of uprooted earth and the corpses of decimated Kriegbots. A few feet from where Toph lay pinned was the twitching body of a werewolf, impaled by a hunk of metal. Azula chuckled lowly as the white-hot knife of flame drew closer to Toph's porcelain skin.

"This is nice," Azula cackled. "To finally have closure over one of my most hated enemies. It's too bad you won't get to witness your own demise."

Toph tried to bend, but Azula was positioned in a way where she couldn't move her limbs. 

"AZULA!"

Her ebony locks whirled as the Fire Nation princess's eyes flicked around to where the call had come from. There, on the other side of the arena of dead Kriegbots and impaled werewolves, was Katara. Tentacles of living water enveloped her arms, and her face bore the scars of battle. She had an expression on her face that scared Toph more than Azula's, whom had about to impale her with a Firebender's blade only moments ago.