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Some time after talking with Steph, Zuko still has no idea how to go about approaching the many people who he should proably talk to.

Instead, he's focusing on something that puts it all off very nicely, and practicing firebending forms out in the training field. They really do make much more sense after visiting the Masters - without having to spend to much effort on brute force and anger to produce the flame, everything flows more, and that in turn is levelling out his thoughts.

So. Another version of him had children. And they're here. They also seem to think he's their father- at least, the version that they knew. He should talk to Mel first, then. He's not sure what she thinks, but he should ask, in any case. And Iroh should know.

Later. He finishes off a form, and moves onto the next.

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Val thinks this over, then returns his nod.

What he says makes sense.

And she does her best to really attack, figuring he's good enough that she can't possibly hurt him.

(She's right. Val Bell is neither strong nor fast, when it comes to fights that don't involve the infamous Hentai Approach; after all, she's never needed to be.)

Well, at least Zuko doesn't punt her out of the field, as he's been known to do to the occasional n00b?

He parries, making sure to use the technique he'd just taught her, and follows through with a cut to her back as he steps so she goes past him, making sure to turn so it's the flat that will hit if she doesn't dodge, not the blade.

Fine as he may be with training people into a bruised puddle, he's not going to slice people up.

She oofs, falls, rolls away gracelessly, and bounces back to her feet with the help of a mass of tentacles.

Since she's facing almost directly away from him, there's no good leverage for her to attack with either sword. But since she's facing almost directly away from him, there is good leverage for an elbow to the kidney, aimed with the help of the fuzzy omnidirectional sight afforded by her glowing white pseudopodia.

Ow, and spin away.

Zuko's midsection is pretty much a solid wall of muscle, so although it hurts, it doesn't wind him, and he narrows his eyes in concentration, turning back to face her, swords ready.

If we're going off form? Let's do it properly.

"Show me how you'd usually fight if armed with those," he says, nodding at the swords. Not that he expects her to stick entirely to the swords, but it's a good enough place to start.

"You got it," she says, dragging her hair out of her eyes with a sweeping tendril.

And... two things happen.

One: the seething tangle of soft tentacles contracts into a hard, smooth second skin that glows beneath her clothing, complete with a faceless mask. It's not nearly at the usual strength she gives her armour, because she needs some concentration to keep the swords going, and she trusts Zuko not to suddenly pull a gun and shoot her in the face. But it lets her get away with things she ought not to be able to get away with.

Two: she tries that attack again, but this time it's accompanied by thin tentacles flicking out from her forearms and batting at his face and hands: half distraction, half an attempt to disarm that she doesn't think will succeed. There's barely any thought in them, and when they meet the edge of someone's blade they give way with all the resistance of cobwebs, but there are lots and the glow is making it hard to see.

Zuko moves into the parrying form almost automatically, narrowing his eyes against the glow, and drawing in a slow, deliberate breath as he kicks backwards against the back of her knee.

Then he turns, exhaling hard, and flames envelop the Dao blades.

She goes down. Again. Val just plain isn't any good at keeping her feet.

But she doesn't have to be, because four tentacles stop her fall and she flips back up, kicking hard at his shin and attacking with both swords: right low, left high.

The kicked shin goes off the floor, but Zuko shifts his weight back onto the other foot, and spins to keep his balance, bringing up his swords with force behind them, bearing forwards until his foot goes down again for balance.

He's fairly trusting, here, that they'll stay solid.

One of his swords is blocked by one of hers, the other one by an armored elbow with a muted clang that elbows just do not ordinarily make.

All this 'keeping your balance' business is leaving her dizzy, but that's okay! She still hasn't exhausted her repertoire of ways to cheat shamelessly.

Which is why, all of a sudden, her back sprouts what can only be described as a titan's bedsheets and she shoots upward with a remarkably loud, fluttering flap of new-made wings. Getting good vertical acceleration is always hell, but she gets over Zuko's head at least, and sort of flails downwards at him with swords which miraculously she still remembers about.

WTF?

Oh, well.

If she can cheat, so can he. That's why Val suddenly gets a burst of flame obscuring... mostly everything, while Zuko rolls out of the way.

The wings shatter impressively, and there are a hell of a lot of dissipating mist-shards everywhere to obscure the fact that Val is more or less dropping out of the sky onto Zuko's face with her feet.

...Meep.

Or, ouch.

But Zuko's used to taking punishment on his face (insert angst here), and now he's rolling hard to one side to try and bear her down under him.

(He'll... be embarrassed about it later. For now? Fight!)

The armour stays on out of habit.

Which is good, because his swords are still on fire, and therefore so are her clothes.

She doesn't seem to mind.

Perhaps this is because she's busy with the fact that there is some dude on top of her, and he has swords.

Wait, so does she!

You can't call it a block. It's more of a flail. But it keeps sharp pointy things away from her armour, so it's good enough.

Her swords manage to block his as they come down, which is fairly impressive. He notes that, then slides the blades down so they catch at the handles, and he shoves them down hard just above her head, to take them out of the equation.

"Not bad," he says conversationally.

"Yeah?"

She's actually surprised at that one. Not enough to get rid of the armour, but enough that she just blinks at him for a moment as her swords dissolve out of her grip--

--and then she shoves hard at Zuko's chest.

Hey, might as well keep it up, right?

--Whoa, no more swords there.

Zuko exhales sharply - and his breath is a lot hotter than it should be - before he pushes up to get his own swords involved again, aiming the next cut at her throat, ready to stop if her armour fails.

Val's armour does not fail.

She gets her arm in the way of his swords out of habit, scrambles very awkwardly to her feet, and shakes her head to clear it.

Important lesson, Zuko: get her mentally off-balance, and she can't invade your personal space with hundreds of tentacles!

On the other hand, she looks to be (and is) perfectly capable of going up against his swords with her bare light-armoured hands and at least not hurting herself.

Said Important Lesson is noted.

He attacks fast this time, knocking away the hand in front of him, and going for the midsection.

Oof.

The armour stops the sword, but there's still an impact, and therefore an ouch.

And because she still hasn't gathered her thoughts well enough to do much else, she stumbles back a step and then tries to punch him in the face.

Zuko goes with it, turning his head to absorb most of the impact, then taking a different tack and going to drive a swordhilt into her stomach in an attempt to knock her down again.

Okay, that works.

Eventually the narration is certain Val will learn how to keep her feet, or at least fall gracefully.

Until then, she's flat on her back, shoving off the ground to... well, it doesn't deserve to be dignified with the name 'tackle', but it is at least a lunge at his knees.

This is where Zuko takes unfair advantage of firebender physiology.

Because a normal person would not be able to jump like that without leverage, over her head and onto his elbows before going into a roll and spin to bring his swords back around to her again.

...Goddamn, that's actually kind of cool.

And it's not like Val can complain about cheating.

Much like Zuko cannot complain about her giving up on regaining her feet entirely and instead grabbing his left sword in glowing white fingers and yanking really hard.

Aaand, that's strong.

Strong enough that he just hangs on with that hand, not trying to reclaim it, and slashes hard at the white... stuff with his other sword. it's as good a strategy as anything, right?

Predictably, it goes not!clang.

Which means Val is letting go and shaking out her fingers, but - hey! Zuko's closer now! She can punch him again!

Since, you know, it worked so well the last time.

Well, what the hell.

(Also, she's breathing hard under the mask by this point. Valerie Bell is not terribly in-shape, it must be said.)