I.O.F Chapter 7: The final countdown

Azula watched the tower. She had been walking for a day now and knew that she would be arriving at the base of the tower somewhere in the evening.
After entering this strange island, she had met up with her brother Zuko. Azula had been suprised to find her big brother on this island because she knew that he would not be able to handle any kind of power and power was the reason she was here. The boy claimed that their mother was hidden on the island but Azula was pretty shure that this was just a cover-up. As she had to wait, the fireprincess enjoyed herself with one of her favorite youth pasttimes, annyoing and taunting Zuko.
After that strange man had given his speech and the first battle had been fought, Azula had left the arena.her brother Zuko had been in the first fight and to little suprise, he had lost. It was only because of luck that he was not killed that instant. That he had lost was bad enough but that he did not die as he should was worse.
After the whole event in the arena, Azula had remained in the shadows. She had kept silent and hidden for the first few days so she could explore the island and find out more about her opponents.
Azula was almost done with her exploration and only needed to watch the big tower from upclose. She suspected that the man who organised the tournament lived here and she might pick up a few usefull things from the place.
After that, all the weak opponents would have been destroyed and Azula only needed to bother herself with the stronger opponents who were worth her time.
After everybody else was dead, the power was to grab and Azula would take out this master of the tournament.

Suddenly, Azula heard footsteps behind her and the woman warrior turned around quickly to see who approached. It was man with white skin, green hair and purple clothing. Azula had seen this man before and she was not very shure what to make off him. He was odd and did not seem much of a warrior but to have survived this long, he must have had some skill in combat.
The laugh the clown gave annoyed Azula much and the man walked towards her with a arrogance that was not suited for anyone but herself. Instead of attacking, this man simply walked towards Azula and kept on laughing. Just as he was right before her, the clown started talking. 'Well hello. What a beautiful young lady we have here.'
Azula was watching the man, constant on her guard so not to be attacked by suprise while this idiot was hitting on her. 'A flower for the lady.' The Joker spoke as he took the flower from his suit and moved it towards her. The firebender simply smiled as he burned the flower to ashes. This would scare this stranger, she though. To her surprise, Azula saw that the clown was not scared at all but merely suprised. From suprise, his face turned into a sad one and at last, the Joker started smiling and laughing again. 'You are really a hotty' the harlequin of hate commented.
Azula was now really pissed off at the clown and when the man wanted to shake her hand, she put him on fire, hoping to finally get rid off him.
Instead of screaming in pain, the clown just ran around and kept on yelling: 'Hot, Hot, Hot.' This was even more annoying then that laugh of the Joker and with the little selfcontroll that she still had, Azula focused her lighting and then fired it at the clown prince of crime. When the lighting hit the chest of the Joker, the clown fell down. It was a quick but unsatisfying death but at least he was silent.

Just as Azula wanted to continue her journey, someone spoke to her. 'So you finally managed to shut the Joker up?'
Azula looked up in surpise, only to find a man in a black suit standing in the shadow near a tree. 'So you want to die also?' Azula asked the man. Before Batman could respond, Azula attacked with a disk of fire and Batman had to jump away to avoid it.
Azula then followed up with a stream of fire that Batman could not avoid and he absorbed the fire with his suit and protected his face with his cape. Azula laughed as she saw how her fire hit the target. She then unleashed more blue flames. When she was done, Azula saw to her great surprise that her opponent was still standing.
Batman then threw a batarang at Azula, who dodged the projectile but was distracted enough not to notice that the dark knight was running towards her. When the female finally noticed her opponent, she recieved a kick in the stumach.
The two warriors started fighting each other in hand to hand combat and as Azula moved her hands to strike Batman, the Gotham protector blocked the attack and kicked her side with his knee. Batman then tried to grab Azula but she pushed her opponent away and kicked him in the chest.
Batman fell on the ground and saw how Azula was collecting energy. Knowing on what happened to the Joker, Batman threw a batarang that hit the hand that stored the electrical energy and threw Azula off balance. Using the little time he had, Batman took his metal staff and came to attack Azula.
The staf flew in the air but before it could strike target, Azula ducked away and unleashed a whip of fire to keep her opponent on a distance.
As Azula moved her whip backwards to give a powerfull attack, Batman stepped in and slammed the hands of Azula with his staff. He then thrusted the metal weapon forwards and almost hit the face of Azula who managed to move her head just in time.
The firebender then grabbed the staff of Batman and when both opponents held the same weapon, Azula kicked out to the Bat and blue flames erupted from her foot. The flames had no effect on Batman's fire resistant Batsuit but it did knock him off balance and Azula then jurked the weapon towards her. She was now the only one holding the metal staff and she threw the weapon far away.
Batman had raised himself up from a fallen position and saw how his staff got thrown away. The then took a smoke grenade and threw it at Azula. Smoke quickly surrounded the princess and Batman stepped behind her. He pulled her arms backwards and held them tight. 'Surrender.' He spoke. As a result, Azula laughed and waited untill the smoke was completely gone. After that, she twisted herself around and used her agility to kick out at Batman. She  forced her arms out of the tight hold and pulled the legs of the superhero, who fell on the ground. Azula kicked the opponent in the chest and the face but when she tried to hit the face of Batman again, the dark knight grabbed her foot and delivered a kick in the chest and a kick in the face himself. Azula stepped backwards while Batman rolled away and raised himself up quickly.

Neither combatant had noticed that someone was watching the battle from a distance. This man, who was only known by his title of Hero, had rested after the hard fight against the very small yet very strong warrior. During the time of resting, he thought about Storm. This beatiful woman had become fast friends with the Hero and he had even felt love for her. But during the battle against the green warrior, she had been killed and the Hero was all alone again. After he had been fully recovered, the Oakvale Hero had known what to do. He would seek out and destroy this master of the tournament and avenge the fallen mutant.
Hoping that the master was hiding in the large tower, the Hero had traveled to the building when he had heard the sounds of battle and moments later, saw these two fighters duel. Curious on how the battle would unfold, the Hero would wait and see what happened and who would win before he would act.

Batman and Azula were still fighting each other and each tried to land a succesfull blow but failed to do so. Batman stepped backwards and threw his batarang filled with knock out gas. Azula dodged the attack and came running at the bat. Batman jumped away and used his cape to desoriëntate his female opponent.
When he saw how Azula took a shuriken knife from a hidden pouch, Batman took a batarang in his hand. The two were too close to each other to throw the projectiles and used the weapons in melee combat.
After only a minute of fighting, Azula knew that it was very hard to get through the armour of the opponent and land a killing attack. Instead, she pushed the man in the cowl away. She then dropped the shuriken knife and created a fiery sword. The burning sword slashed at Batman but the cunning Bruce avoided the slash and threw his batarang at the knee of Azula.
The batarang hit and as the flaming sword dissapeared, Azula knelt in pain. Batman moved swiftly and kicked his opponent on the ground, to stand over her with a batarang in his hand.
'Kill me.' Azula suddenly spoke. She showed no fear and smiled as she stared into eyes of her opponent.
Batman had been taunted before and was not impressed. He would break his vow. He had not done this for the Joker and he would not do it for this girl or the master of the tournament.
Even though Batman was shure that he would not kill, he stood suprised by the fact that this girl, who could not be more then 17 years of age stood defiant and ready to accept death.
As Batman stood there suprised, Azula made her move. She first kicked the man in his crotch and then kicked out to his ancles. Batman fell down while Azula raised herself up. She put her left foot on the chest of Bruce Wayne and smiled. 'I am not weak and willl kill you.' She said just before she prepared for a lightning attack.
Just as she was generating lightning, Azula turned around and saw an arrow heading towards her face. She aborted the attack and was just in time to burn the arrow before it could hit target.. She then saw a warrior in full armour heading towards her. Before Azula could do anything else, she fell. Batman had used his hands to trip the woman and now stood up. Azula stood up herself also, using fire to protect herself while doing so. She turned to face the warrior that attacked her and what she saw was a big man who gave off a red glow. The man swung a sword at her and before Azula could dodge, she got struck in the chest and stumach with a powerfull blow. Azula toppled over and the Hero followed up with a stab in her chest. He followed up with more  thrusting attacks, letting all of his rage out on the princess of the firenation. He did not even notice that he changed back into his normall self and only stopped when a hand grabbed his shoulder. 'Ease up big guy.' Batman spoke.
After the Hero had sheated his sword and taken off his helmet, Batman asked a question. 'Tell me. Why did you help me. You could have waited untill the girl killed me and then attack her and you could have even attacked me when you had killed her, but you didn't.'
The Hero took a moment to think before he answered. 'I saw how you spared the woman when you had a chance to kill. I met a woman on this island who did not kill either. She was very nice and you reminded me off her. She died while fighting at my side. It was because of her, that I chose to help you.' Both warriors remained silent for some time after this and in the end, the Hero talked. 'I am sorry but I need to go now. I am going to kill the man who put us on the island.' 'So we have a commen goal it seems. Altough I will not kill him, I am traveling to the tower also. I know that the master is hiding there and he has the only means of getting us out of here. On this island, I have found that nothing makes sense. I believed that we have been lured here with empty promises, only to his amusement and I doubt  that the survivor will make it out alive.' After this, the Hero thought about the different reasons that both he and Storm had come here. He knew that this man in the cowl was right. Batman then continued. 'Alone, each of us would stand a decent chance of getting in the tower and taking this master out but the man has soldiers and if we work together, we can take them all on.' Batman worked alone most of the time but he co-operated with others on rare occasions.
After a second of thinking, the Hero accepted. The two men shook hands and a alliance was born.