I was "inspired" to write this story after watching Terminator 3. It follows Aang in a post apocalyptic world where the machines have complete control while the humans are on the verge of extinction. Can Aang survive or will he be the last Avatar the world ever saw? Read to find out!
Aang blinked open his eyes, unable to see anything. He blindly stared at the earthen ceiling he had created for a few minutes as if not wanting to get up. But he had no choice. With tiny movements of his fingers and wrists he began to push the earth surrounding his hands. Once he had made enough room for his hand to move, he bent a huge hole in the earthen ceiling and climbed out.
Aang used to sleep underground. He literally buried himself at least 15 meters deep in the ground to conceal his thermal signature from the machines while sleeping. He created a single hole which extended from his "bed" right to the surface allowing him to breathe without difficulty. There was also no danger of being bitten by any underground insect, snake, etc. Reptilian and Arthropod-like species were already exterminated nearly a year before "The Declaration of War" by the robots as "they proved to be a great inconvenience in underground operations, interfered in underground cable connections, were a threat to human life and….."
Aang stretched his arms and yawned. He, not surprisingly, couldn't sleep well. He removed a small diary and pen from a small bag tied to a rag which Aang affectionately called "pants". His clothing was similar to the clothes he had worn while the invasion of the fire nation during the eclipse. The sash, unfortunately, was ripped to shreds during an earlier encounter with the machines. The pants which existed only in name barely reached his knees. The rest of his thin, muscular body was covered with dirt and dust, bruises and burns, wounds and scars. Aang flipped through the pages of the diary until he had reached the desired one. Like all the other pages, this one also contained dates written one after another, Aang's idea of tracking time. Aang slowly drew a thin line over the previous date and his eyes drifted over to the next one. Seeing the date brought an expression of surprise over his face.
"Wow," Aang thought out aloud, "I cannot believe I survived another year of this horrendous nightmare." The date was 1stJan, 0004. He really couldn't digest the fact that four years had passed since "The Declaration of War" and he had lived through it.
"Anyway, I wish myself a prosperous, safe and robotic machine-gun free new year!" Aang wished himself, smiling at his not-so-good sense of humor as he returned the diary back in the bag.
"At least, it helps me keep my sanity." Aang thought to himself. "Sanity is the most important and easiest to lose in this chaotic world". Aang yawned and stretched again before getting in an earth-bending stance.
"Time for a nice, warm bath!" Aang tried to speak out in delight but failed miserably. Nonetheless, he decided to have a bath and with a single stomp of his foot created four earthen walls, about 6 meters in height. The four walls had formed a room nearly 3m2 in area. Aang touched one of the walls and used his earth-bending to create a door and walked into the room. Even though Aang was in a completely barren land with nothing in sight for miles he still created the walls to generate a feeling of security and privacy.
"A false one." Aang thought and created a rectangular earthen bath tub. Using a combination of his earth and water bending skills he smoothed out the surface and edges of the tub, giving it an elegant curve like shape. He gently raised and waved his hand in the air to collect enough water to form a sphere and released it in the tub. The moisture and Oxygen content in the air had increased dynamically after the arrival of the machines as their most energy efficient machines ran on new kinds Hydrogen and Helium nuclear reactors which released the above compounds as waste products.
Aang continued to bend water in the tub till it was filled and dipped his other hand in the water, using fire bending to warm it up. After he was satisfied with the temperature, he withdrew his hand and removed the little bit piece of clothing he had. After completely disrobing himself, Aang slowly entered the water, a sigh of relief escaping his lips as the lukewarm water soothed his aching muscles. Aang comfortably settled his body in the tub, the water covering his body right up to his chest, and pulled a small tendril of water in order to heal his wounds. He focused more on the recent ones near his left arm and kidney. The water began to glow in an eerie whitish blue color as Aang healed a 6 cm gash on the arm. Aang winced a little as the cut diminished into a small wound. After healing other wounds, Aang completely submerged himself in the tub and used water bending to spin in the tub, similar to a washing machine in order to clean his body. The method Aang had employed was definitely weird but fun at the same time. And Aang needed to have fun. His usually cheerful natural was replaced by a grimmer, darker version due to the death and violence he had witnessed.
The water had turned murky by the time Aang had finished his bath due to the dirt accumulated on him while sleeping. Aang bent the entire water into a huge sphere and tossed it over the walls of his bathroom, having little concern of where it landed. Even after the bath Aang wasn't quite satisfied. His clothes were still dirty. Aang again filled the tub with water and immersed his pants in it after removing the bag which contained his diary. He repeated the spinning process until his pants were washed clean. Pulling them out of the water, Aang stomped the ground again and the entire makeshift bathroom crumbled to dust, leaving no sign that anyone had been here. Aang wore the dripping wet pants and pulled the water out of them using water bending and tied the bag. Then using his hands and fire bending, Aang ironed the pants very slowly until there wasn't a single crease left. It was quite clear that personal hygiene and cleanliness were some of the other things which helped Aang to retain his sanity.
Aang's growling stomach reminded him to eat breakfast since there was no other accurate way to tell the time since the sun had been destroyed. The machines used Helium and Hydrogen to run themselves. And since the atmosphere of earth didn't provide either of these gases in large quantities, the closet and richest source was the Sun. Within a time span of 5 months from their arrival, the machines had completed the transfer of the said elements from the Sun to earth using 32 spaceships, transforming the Sun into a small white dwarf. Instead the earth was now illuminated by radioactive, non-harmful and gaseous halogen compounds which gave out a dim red light that remained the same, day and night. The sky turned dark blood red due to the compounds but was bright enough for decent visibility. Yet Aang hated it. It was a reminder of how the world had changed because of the machines.
Aang untied the bag and opened it. The contents of the bag were: the diary and pen, a crumpled, folded photograph, a couple of small, square shaped, brightly colored articles, tightly packaged in artificial fiber a broken transmitter and the whistle which was used for calling Appa who, unfortunately, was donated to the machines by Aang in order to conserve his species. Appa's current whereabouts were unknown. Aang scanned the bag briefly and pulled out one of the Fruitella-like object. It was purple in color."Either grape or plum." Aang thought, holding the article in his hands, contemplating the idea of eating it. Both the flavors were his favorites and he didn't want to run out of his "prized possessions" right away.
The machines had introduced a new way of eating before the war. The small objects, called "Fruit Fillers" had become a rage with people as it was not only economical but satisfying as well. Quite true to its name, the Fruit Fillers tasted of fruit, the color of the packaging helped in identifying the taste. But this wasn't all, the main reason people flocked in hundreds to buy them was that they completely "filled" a person i.e. a single one was more than enough to provide the nutritional needs of a person for a single day. Simply put, have one and you don't have to eat or drink for another 24 hours. Aang had strongly advocated against it since it would be detrimental for the farmer's livelihood but gave up when the farmers themselves became addicted to it, which was quite soon.
But now Aang didn't have any other option. Eat the Fruit Fillers or starve. Only because of the need to live and pure desperation, Aang had opted for the former. After trying one, even he had to admit they tasted extremely good. However, today he was faced with another crisis. He had no other Fruit Filler except for the purple one. The color indicated that it would taste like grape or plum and both these flavors were Aang's favorite. He wanted to preserve them till the end. Aang fished for another Fruit Filler in his bag hoping that this wasn't the last one. He let out a sigh of relief when his fingers touched another one. Pulling it out swiftly, Aang saw the pale yellow covering. He had this one several times before so he could easily identify the fruit. Banana, a fruit he wasn't overly fond of. He returned the purple one in the bag and removed the covering of the new one in haste. The color of the candy was identical to the cover and it also gave out a faint smell of banana. Aang popped it into his mouth and rolled it inside with his tongue, relishing the flavor for a while. After a few seconds, he started chewing and in another few seconds it was swallowed. After the "daily meal", Aang's facial muscles contracted a bit. He realized he was running dangerously low on food rations and by tomorrow he would have none.
"I will have to raid another one soon." Aang thought, referencing to one of the base stations where the machines used to "live" and produce other goods. Although they surely wouldn't be producing articles for human consumption/usage anymore, he knew they would still have plenty in stock since the machines used to produce goods on a gigantic scale, usually enough to fulfill the needs of the entire population more than three times.
Aang looked around the deserted landscape, as if hoping to find someone. Slowly he tied the bag again to his pants and drew his legs together, standing upright in attention. He then placed his arms on either side of his body with their palms facing downwards and fingers outstretched. Small flames started to form in his palms, lifting him about half a meter from the ground. Similar flames started to sprout from his heels slowly pushing him more towards the sky.
"Time to fly!" Aang shouted out aloud as the flames in beneath his hands and legs grew longer lifting him further and further till Aang was nearly 20 meters above the ground. Now, the flames below his hands went out and Aang used air bending to rotate his body from vertical to horizontal. After being satisfied with his position, Aang used fire bending to regenerate the flames beneath his palms and to further extend the ones near his foot. As a result of this, Aang started to travel forward with a velocity of nearly 30 m/s. Aang began hurtling forward with no particular direction or location in mind. He knew he just had to travel to avoid getting imprisoned. And he knew that while flying it was impossible to catch him due to the way he was flying. The method Aang had used was quite simple and similar to the way any fire bender would fly. But Aang wasn't just any fire bender, he was the Avatar. Using his air bending skills he directed the excess of oxygen in the air towards the flames thus greatly increasing the thrust capacity. This not only enabled him to fly like a fire bender without the influence of the Sozin's comet but faster than usual. Plus, he had a hidden technique which he was afraid to use and had vowed to employ it only in the most difficult circumstances. This technique also made use of air bending but for creating vacuums. Aang, if needed, could create a vacuum using air bending directly in front of him while flying. This would reduce the frictional and other opposing forces to near zero level, allowing him to undergo friction less flight. Also the air directly behind him would push him forward in order to eliminate the differences in pressure, adding to his speed. Aang had attempted this technique only once. Seeing the effects of it made him promise that he wouldn't use it anymore. Starting from the southern water tribe he had reached the coastal region of the earth kingdom in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. And it wasn't the southern coast, it was the northern. An indicator of the uncontrolled speed the technique provided.
Since today Aang was in no hurry of crossing continents, he chose the earlier method. He could have flown with his glider hadn't it been incinerated by the machines. Aang continued to travel north from his current location. He was in the southern part of the earth kingdom and he knew the broadcasts from survivors came from somewhere in this region. He had searched the entire area but didn't find a single living soul. He also couldn't receive transmissions any more since his transmitter cum receiver was broken. Aang now hoped to find someone at Ba Sing Se which was a major hideout for survivors. Unfortunately it was destroyed 2 years ago. Still Aang had hopes.
"Hope is the reason for our existence." Aang reminded himself. It was the slogan that he had formed to motivate the survivors. It was a bit lame as Aang had admitted but it still had the desired effect on the people. But today it wasn't in Aang's destiny to see his hopes get fulfilled. His swift journey across the earth kingdom was cut short when he saw a strange metallic grey figure standing at least 100 meters below him. Even without a distinct image Aang immediately recognized the machine.
"An assassinator." Aang thought as he slowed to a stop. The machines did not name themselves. The names were kept by humans based on their functions. This particular one was an assassinator. It was, as the name suggests, sent on assassination missions. It was used to kill all the heads of states of the different nations as soon as the war was declared. Zuko was the only one who had survived since Aang had saved him. Chief Arnook, King Kuei and Katara's father Chief Hakoda were all murdered. Anger started to build up in Aang as he recollected how Katara had cradled the dead body of her father, her eyes filled with tears.
This alone was enough for Aang to seek revenge. Quietly, Aang started to make his descent. As Aang descended the image of the robot and the surroundings became sharper. Aang noticed that the robot was standing at the center of a small village or what used to be a village. 'Ruins' was a more appropriate word to describe it. Almost all the houses were leveled. The few which were remaining could not be called houses any more. Aang could visualize the planes coming in for bombing, the women and children crying for help, the earth benders trying to hold them off, failing in their attempts, dying…
Aang landed about 50 meters away from the enemy, careful not to make any sound. He could hear the wind howling past, warning him. But Aang ignored. Slowly he outstretched his fingers towards the ground and drew a thin metallic rod from the earth. Constant fighting with the machines had improved his metal bending to a great extent. Now, he could not only bend available metal but pull metal straight from the ground. Aang slowly gave the rod the shape of a spear, paying special attention to the arrow head. At the same time his eyes remained focused on the robot as it wandered about, occasionally kicking away some of the debris as if searching for something. But Aang didn't care. He just wanted to make sure the robot didn't turn around and spot him. After giving the desired shape to the spear, Aang lifted it above his shoulders like a pro javelin thrower. He took in all the angles, the distance, wind speed, density of the armor of the robot and calculated the strength required and the position.
Aang had only one shot. He had to make sure it counted. Aang knew there were three processors in a robot, 1 primary and others 2 for backup. If he succeeded in destroying the primary one the robot will have to reboot. This would give Aang enough time to take him out. Aang slowly aimed at the place where the human right kidney would be located as it was also the location for the primary processor for the robot. Normally, people assumed that the processor has to be the head of the robot. The machines realized this and started to manufacture robots with processors situated at strange places. But none of that mattered anymore. After being contended with his aim, Aang forcefully released the spear which began hurtling toward its target with immense speed. The robot didn't even have time to realize what had happened. By the time it had turned halfway to look what was happening the spear had already impaled it at the exact spot where Aang had aimed. The robot immediately fell to its knees, using its arms to maintain balance and to avoid falling. Aang thrust his arm in the air obviously overjoyed with his victory. Perhaps it was this victory which had sharpened his senses or maybe it was the wind which had warned him again. Aang ducked immediately and heard a bullet whip past him, narrowly grazing his raised arm. Aang saw a small red line forming at the spot where the bullet had touched. It stung like hell but Aang knew it could have been a lot worse. Had he been standing, the bullet would have pierced his throat and he would have died a soundless, painful death. Aang decided to search for the robot who had attempted to kill him. But even before that Aang decided it was in his best interests to jump and he did so. As he jumped, he saw the flash of another bullet cutting through the air. This one could have also finished him but Aang had jumped on pure instinct, fortunately.
What happened next was unfortunate.
"What the …" was all Aang could say as he felt a bullet ram in to his right thigh with monstrous force. Immense pain began to surge through Aang's body as he fell back to the ground, applying pressure to his wounded leg, screaming in pain. The bullet which had struck him was fired by the same robot which he had injured only moments ago. By the time the two bullets were fired, the backup processor of the robot had started functioning. Luckily, he didn't have enough time to aim or else Aang would have already entered the spirit world.
Aang realized that he had walked straight into an ambush. It became obvious to him what the robot was searching for. Absolutely nothing! The robot was bait and another was possibly hiding somewhere waiting for Aang to arrive and fall for the trap. It was downright foolish for him but Aang realized that he could curse himself later on. Aang saw the semi-injured robot slowly making its way towards him. Its one hand was modified into an assault rifle with a zoom-in scope at the top. The other hand was normal though it was nowhere close to that of a human. It had four fingers or rather blades protruding from a metallic ball. The ball was connected to a hollow, cylindrical forearm. The rest of the physiology of the machine was similar to humans except that joints, tendons and were replaced by a connection of nuts, bolts and wires. The face was the most hideous. It looked like a human skull with no mouth, no nose, no hears and no eyes. It had only a black strip which extended from one corner to the other horizontally. A red light would occasionally flash across it.
The robot was now only centimeters away from the wriggling body of Aang. Aang tried his best to increase the distance between him and the robot by crawling or at least appeared to do so. The robot menacingly continued towards Aang, as if enjoying the agony of the 18 year old kid. But this time Aang had fooled them. Neither the bullet had shattered any of his bones nor was he grievously injured. He was capable of walking yet he decided to crawl. Why? To buy him some time. While Aang had been crawling, he had continued to pull the the metal spear towards him which the robot had removed from his body. Now it was just behind the assassinator and was tilted at an angle. The target of the spear was now the left knee, the location of the second processor. Aang also knew the location of the third processor, somewhere near the right shoulder. If the spear were to destroy the second one and if he could destroy the third one then the robot would stop functioning. But as with any great plan there were too many 'ifs'. Usually the robots are ordered to capture humans but they were allowed to kill them under "unavoidable circumstances." Aang's plan, was unfortunately, considered an "unavoidable circumstance." If it didn't work the robot would fire a white-hot metallic projectile through its modified hand, immediately ending Aang's life. But Aang had no choice. He knew that if he was imprisoned they would do some sort of weird test on him before discarding him under the label of "organic waste: to be disposed separately".
Now Aang was able to see the second robot that had ambushed him. It was also an assassinator. It was now only meters away, coming from somewhere behind him and Aang realized that the robot had been hidden behind one of the broken walls. Had he surveyed the area more carefully he would have spotted him easily. Another foolish mistake. The first robot was now looming over Aang's body, its gun poking Aang's chest. Aang lay still. The only movement was in his fingers which continued to pull the metal rod, adjusting the direction and angle of elevation. Luckily for Aang, the spear and the robot were co-linear so the second robot couldn't see it.
The robot began to speak, possibly from a concealed speaker. "Do not attempt to move or else you shall be shot." Aang heard its voice, cold and metallic. He was in no mood to listen to the entire list of conditions the robot wanted to say and with full force pulled his hand back. The immediate effect of this was that the spear positioned behind the knee of the robot impaled the knee of the robot. Similar to the first time the robot again landed on its knees, trying to comprehend what had happened. Aang did not allow him to do so. He swiftly raised his arm and shot a fire ball, aiming for the third processor. Normally a fire ball attack could not cause any damage to the metallic armor of the robot but due to the high oxygen content of the atmosphere the intensity of the fire bending attacks had increased drastically. The fire ball exploded violently, nearly destroying the entire shoulder of the robot which soon crumpled to the ground. The second robot had tried to shoot Aang but he stood up quickly and dodged the spray of bullets the robot fired at him, thwarting his plans. But Aang knew he couldn't dodge the robot forever. He looked down at his bleeding thigh. An idea struck him.
Aang had started practicing blood bending ever since he was separated from the group. His regular practice made him master the skill and now he could blood bend even in broad daylight, even though there wasn't any. Aang used blood bending to prevent blood from flowing out of his body whenever he was grievously injured or cut. But today he used it for a different purpose. He bent the blood dripping out from his thigh into a tendril and whacked it across the face of the second robot. The robot regained his senses in a matter of seconds. But by this time Aang had vanished. The robot "looked" around and discovered a huge hole in the ground. It was obvious that Aang had disappeared into the ground using the split second distraction. And the robots hated it when people went underground.
Aang was now inside the ground, deep enough to conceal his heat signature. Aang inspected his wound in the dim light. He slowly pulled out the bullet using metal bending, groaning a little as the bullet traced back its path. He waved his hand in the air and collected all the moisture from the air and started to heal his wound. It was impossible to heal the wound in one go yet Aang did his best. Aang knew he would have a one-on-one confrontation with the robot when he resurfaces. He had to prepare himself well. Aang bent metal from the ground and covered his and fingers palm with it. He rolled his hand into a fist to check whether the metal had covered his entire hand. He then drew small metallic spikes on his knuckles. On the other hand he repeated the entire process. Aang also did the same to his feet. He could cover his entire body with metal but that would just slow him down. And the bullets could pierce the metal anyway. Aang's main reason to cover his hands and feet was to increase the damage of his attacks and to prevent his skin from getting bruised while he attacked the robot. Once he had completed applying metal to his hands and feet he crouched and pressed his hand to the ground below him. Once he had found what he was searching for he pulled his hand back and bent a black powdery substance from the ground. Aang applied the substance generously on the metal covered parts of his body. Then with a small spark, he set it on fire
The substance Aang had bent from the ground was gunpowder. When a robot was destroyed, the gunpowder from its guns would be transported by the wind to different places. Luckily for Aang there was a good amount of gunpowder deposited in this region. Gunpowder wasn't technically earth so he couldn't bend it. But Aang knew how to bend sand so along with the sand he could pull in the gunpowder. Aang made use of his fire bending to control the flames so that the gunpowder wouldn't explode but act as a slow burning fuel. Aang knew he had to move fast since the heat generated by the flames would be detected by the heat sensors of the robot and began to earth bend.
(Meanwhile…Above the ground)
The robot looked across the area, waiting for Aang. Actually he didn't want Aang to come out. He had once seen a little girl expertly metal bend one of his comrades into a flat sheet of metal. Obviously she was an expert in metal bending but the robot knew that a person's skill in earth bending was reflected in metal bending. And by seeing how quickly he had gone 15 meters deep in the ground, the robot knew Aang was an expert earth bender. But the robot also knew he had to hold his ground. He had called for backup the instant Aang destroyed the other robot. The backup could be arriving any moment. Suddenly the robot felt a huge amount of heat underground. It thought that the source of heat was Aang and took aim. A hole formed in the ground and a huge flame-clad object surged through it. Unfortunately, the robot was prepared and fired an entire magazine of bullets at the fiery being. As if on cue, the flames diminished instantly to reveal nothing inside. In the flash of a second another hole appeared behind the robot and through it Aang resurfaced, a nightmarish creature, covered in flames and metal. Aang had successfully deceived the second robot too. When he was underground he sent a huge fireball through one of the two holes he had created. He knew that the thermal sensors of the robot would make him think that 'he' was coming up. Now the robot was out of ammo and Aang was fully prepared. Aang punched the robot in the abdomen and sent another straight to his face causing the robot to fly a couple of meters before crashing into the ground.
Aang went near him and stomped on his chest with his foot, cracking some of his metallic exoskeleton. "Do not attempt to move or else you shall be shot." Aang repeated the exact words said to him by the robot which he had slain. But before Aang could continue a blast of bullets aimed at him interfered. Aang quickly dodged them and created an extremely thick earthen wall and hid behind it. Aang guessed the bullets were fired by some sort of a machine gun and so a built a wall thick enough to withstand them. Aang felt air pushing at his wall as if an air craft was landing.
"Oh no!" Aang thought as he realized what had arrived. A drone dropper. It was a kind of a jumbo-jet used to transport the robots and had built in machine guns. But that wasn't scaring Aang. What had arrived with it was the main cause of Aang's fear, the M.K.s .Short for mass-killers. They were the direct opposite of the assassinators. The assassinators were useful for eliminating targets from a distance while the M.K.s were used for wiping out enemies at a close range, like a foot soldier. Their physiology was also radically different. The assassinator was thinner than a human with a single assault rifle for a weapon whereas the M.K. had extremely thick armor and had dual mini guns fitted in the center of their palms. Aang had fought with them previously while raiding bases and he knew they specialized in close combat. Aang slowly peered over the earthen wall to see how many had arrived. Within seconds of raising his head, Aang was greeted by a swarm of bullets. Aang ducked instantly to save his head. The robots continued to fire their machine guns in an attempt to break the wall but to no effect. Aang had created a wall of sufficient thickness to withstand the bullets.
"So much for a machine gun free new year." Aang muttered in his frustration. Even though he had seen his enemy for only a few seconds, Aang had counted a total of seven robots .SEVEN ROBOTS, for spirit's sake. Aang had defeated more but never together, never in an open space like this with nowhere to hide. Depression was about to set in but Aang motivated himself, remembering how his friends were killed by the robots, remembering how the robots had destroyed everything in their way. Vengeance began to fuel Aang's desire to defeat them.
"I am the Avatar. I can -." Aang's self-encouraging thoughts were interrupted abruptly with a sudden explosion behind him. Aang jumped forward and turned around to see his earthen wall was destroyed, bits of burning rock flying in every direction. Aang landed on the balls of his feet, his back facing the robots, dust spreading in the area. Aang bent some of the dust and formed a thin dust blanket between him and the robots. Obviously it was of no use. The robots could still catch him using infra-red. Even Aang knew that. But a small child-like behavior which existed in his brain loved theatrics, even in matters of life and death. And Aang just couldn't control it. He turned around, the dust settling, an expression of determination spreading across his face.
"I can do this." Aang resolved firmly and jumped towards the robots which had taken aim, their arms pointing towards Aang, fingers outstretched to reveal an extremely tiny six barrel mini-gun in the center of the palm. Even though it was small its power was unmatched. As Aang moved toward his enemies, like all action flicks, he felt time slow down. He saw a grenade launcher sticking out of the shoulder of one of the robots and understood that it was used to blow his wall. He swiftly zigzagged across the land to dodge the bullets the robots had started firing. Aang rushed towards the robot which had the grenade launcher and punched him straight across the face using his metal-flame glove. This time he wasn't aiming for any processor, he knew that if he damaged enough of the wiring inside the robot would collapse anyway. Aang was now only a few centimeters away from the robot dealing blow after blow to the head and chest.
"They can't attack me now as any attack aimed at me would definitely affect this guy to." Aang thought and continued to bash the robot not allowing him to use his guns or arms for defense. Unfortunately, Aang's thought proved to be wrong as another robot revealed the grenade launcher concealed in its shoulder and took aim at Aang. They wanted to finish him in an instant, having least care what happened to the other robot. Aang saw this and heard the sound of the grenade being launched. Aang pushed himself away from the half beaten robot using an air blast and saw the robot explode as soon as the grenade made contact. Aang continued to fly back using his air bending and sent 3 fireballs towards the robot which had fired the grenade, 2 aiming for the chest and 1 at the grenade launcher. The robot didn't even have time to analyze what had happened. Because it didn't need to! Though the fireballs were aimed with excellent precision and the grenade launcher was blown away but the armor at the chest wasn't even scratched, just blackened. Aang landed on the ground and realized that after the initial assault he had only destroyed one robot and one grenade launcher, much less than what he wanted to accomplish. Plus, the robots had already surrounded him in a circle. If he charged at any one of them the other five would blast him to bits. Aang instantly understood that if he wanted to escape from this he had to attack fast and take out many of them at the same time, a feat which was practically impossible.
"Checkmate."Aang thought, looking down at his burning metal gloves and socks as if they would solve his problem. As luck would have it, they could! An idea immediately popped into his head and simultaneously, he jumped in the sky. The robots raised their arms slowly towards Aang as he soared higher into the sky. If they had emotions (and a mouth) they would probably laugh at the foolish mistake this child had committed. They wouldn't believe this child was a wanted criminal of top priority. But soon they would believe why. As they prepared themselves to finally put an end to the"Avatar menace" Aang stopped going higher and outstretched each of his limbs, each one pointing at a different robot.
Both the robots and Aang fired. The robots had fired a total of 900 bullets at Aang. Whereas Aang had fired his flame clad metal armor: 2 gloves and 2 socks and had dived extremely fast using his air pressure manipulating trick. The bullets missed by a few centimeters but all of Aang's projectiles met their targets. They weren't very strong; they were capable of only impaling the outer armor of four robots. The robots were a bit surprised and stopped firing. But that wasn't the end of Aang's plan. Until now, Aang had prevented the gunpowder from exploding using fire bending. But as soon as they had pierced the outer armor, Aang allowed the fire to freely burn the gunpowder and thus, explode. This resulted in massive explosions and blasted the four robots.
And this what Aang realized as soon as he hit the ground. Four out of six. It was a big mistake. Even though it was a remarkable score, 2 robots were enough to kill him. And now he was defenseless. His armor was gone. Even if he tried a melee attack his bones would crack before even scratching the dense alloy armor. He had already seen what effect the fireballs had. None. Other bending attacks wouldn't help him at all. Going underground was useless too. By the time he would restore his armor and resurface, back up would have arrived. He had lost. The remaining robots saw it, the look of absolute defeat etched across Aang's face and raised their arms. Aang closed his eyes. He tried to imagine the happy days he had spent with his friends. At least it was better than watching the hideous robots. Aang heard the sound of two bullets being fired.