Chapter 4

Rotten Eggs

We caught up to Aang and Teo just outside of the hall in which there was the large airbender door. Once we reached the end of the hall, Aang stepped up and looked at the large wooden doors. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before airbending two jets of air into the horns on the door.

"I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's inside!" Teo exclaimed excitedly, as the airbender symbols flipped, revealing their maroon sides. The doors opened slowly, revealing a horrifying sight. There were Fire Nation weapons adorning the walls, and a large hot air balloon-looking object dominated the floor space. We took a few steps into the room, which did nothing but reveal even more deadly artifacts. I heard running from behind us and turned to see Sokka and the Mechanist coming down the hall towards us. As soon as they got close enough to see inside, Sokka's expression turned from what had been somewhat excitement into downright incredulity,

"You make weapons for the Fire Nation?" He cried angrily.

"You d-don't understand," the Mechanist stammered, looking ashamed.

"Explain this! Now!" Teo said very loudly and very angrily. The Mechanist was silent for a long time before starting slowly,

"It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this Teo." Now he sounded pleading, as if trying to convince himself he did the right thing.
"They were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground. I pleaded with them; I begged them to spare us. They asked what I had to offer. I offered, my services." He looked up at Teo,

"You must understand, I did this for you." However, Teo merely turned his wheelchair away from his father. After looking hopelessly at Teo's back for a while, the Mechanist turned and headed back up the hall. I looked back up at the Fire Nation Emblem emblazoned on the balloon and then said,

"We have to stop them, this can't continue." I looked back at the others as Aang said,

"I'll go, Teo?" He looked over at Teo, who nodded. They went up the hall after the Mechanist, and Sokka, Katara and I headed up towards the exterior of the temple. We headed over towards the satellite building where we knew Aang would head, and because it was one of the only secluded places in the temple. I waited in silence, but Sokka and Katara kept whispering to each other frantically, especially Sokka. Every once in a while, I would catch snippets of what they were saying,

"How are we going to fight them all off?"

"…Rotten eggs, really…" they talked until Aang and Teo came out of the temple and told us what happened. The firebenders were going to attack very soon, and they had little time to prepare. Sokka and Katara were looking very pale,

"Aang, how can we possibly keep them all away?" Katara asked, distressed. For answer, Aang pointed into the sky, where a few gliders were still flitting about.

"We have something they don't. Air power! We control the sky." I looked at him, impressed at his logical thinking in this time of need. Just then, The Mechanist came walking up from behind us,

"I want to help," he said. Aang looked at him for a moment before answering,

"Good, we'll need it." The Mechanist smiled,

"I have a plan. Come to my office." I smiled at the terribly clichéd tone that Teo's dad used with the latter sentence. He led us up to his office, where he had set up his and Sokka's experiment. He and Sokka went around to the other side of the desk to see the assembling people better. For, I had not noticed at first, but there were others filing into the room to see the presentation.

"We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka."Said the Mechanist, gesturing to Sokka,

"This boy's a genius!" he said, and Sokka replied,

"Thank you, you're a genius."

"Thank You!" The four of us exchanged slightly exasperated glances at this over self-congratulation affair. Sokka looked like he had gotten his head back on straight, and started again,

"Well, the problem with the first war balloon was that you could get it into the air, but then it just kept going." He demonstrated this by letting a small model float up to the ceiling.

"If you put a hole in the top, then all the hot air would escape. So, the question became, how do you keep a lid on hot air?" he pulled the model back down as Katara said out of the corner of her mouth,
"If only we knew." The rest of us sniggered, and even I couldn't suppress a small chuckle.

"A lid is actually the answer," Sokka plowed on, ignoring the slight.

"If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon." He showed this with another model that had an opening in the top covered by a top.

That's actually pretty smart, I thought as Aang said it aloud.

"We can drop four different types of bombs from the gliders." Sokka said,

"Smoke, slime, fire, and-"

"Stink! Never underestimate the power of stink," The Mechanist interjected.

"Alright people, let's get ready! The bombs are down on the terrace." Sokka said, and everyone proceeded to the exit of the office and moved down towards the terrace. As I passed Sokka I patted him on the shoulder and said,

"Nice presentation, I'll see you in the air." He nodded his thanks,

"I'll get the war balloon," he said as he went through another door with the Mechanist.

As I got outside I saw exactly how outnumbered we were going to be. There were no more than twenty or so gliders and only about twenty of each of the bombs. I had decided to stand near the cliff, where I could use my firebending to it's full extent. Katara would stay on Appa with the extra bombs so that the gliders could come back for more when they needed them. Just as we were finishing our preparations, a girl called from the edge of the Terrace,

"Their coming!"

"Are we ready?" Teo asked anxiously,

"Yea, but where's Sokka with the war balloon?" Katara replied.

"It doesn't matter right now; we'll just have to fight without him." I answered, as the gliders took their positions on the terrace.

"Let's go!" Teo yelled as the first gliders took off. I ran to the edge as the last gliders took to the sky and looked over the edge. There was nothing there to comfort me; dozens of fire nation soldiers were marching up out of the mist, and they weren't taking kindly to the slime bombs either. They began to shoot fireballs and thro spears at the gliders, but the gliders were too agile and they all missed.

I waited for an opportunity to attack. At last, I took my chance; I saw a bank of snow precariously positioned over the path. I took careful aim before punching a fireball at it. As the blast hit it, it gave way, collapsing onto at least three soldiers and cascading down the mountainside hitting others. I hardly had time to celebrate my accomplishment, for at that moment, spikes came rocketing out of the clouds, narrowly missing Appa. They dug deep into the cliffside, and drew taught. As I watched, I saw what was supplying the tension to the chains, tanks. And not just any tanks, these were the very ones that I had seen inside the Airbender sanctuary. I was not worried just yet however, seeing as they were made of metal. After bending one off the cliff however, I realized just how difficult it would be to move these behemoths; they weighed a ton, at least. I was still not too fussed, seeing as I could just break the chains and let them fall. However, this did not work either, and I witnessed this as soon as I tried it. For when I broke the chain, the tank simply shot another one on to the cliff, which would take too long to break again, especially if there were more chains. As I watched, I saw Aang try the exact same thing, with a very similar effect. Instead of waiting where I was, I ran down off the terrace to where the soldiers and tanks had started advancing. One of the tanks shot a fireblast at me, which I deflected.

I haven't had this much fun in a long while, I thought to myself as I got ready. I took a deep breath and, exhaling, shot three consecutive blasts into the midst of the advancing soldiers. Two of them were blocked, but the third knocked a soldier off balance and into another and both fell off onto a lower terrace. The fact that I was a firebender seemed to confuse them, and they hesitated before attacking. This gave me the opportunity I needed; I ran up to one of the foremost tanks and jumped onto it. I kicked the top off with metalbending, revealing the firebender inside. Before he could do anything, I kicked him as well and knocked him unconscious. By this time, the soldiers had gotten their senses back. One of the pikemen came charging at me, obviously with the intent of skewering me. I jumped down off the tank and pulled out my sword. Sidestepping his stab, I sliced off the end of the spear, and elbowed him in the chest, knocking him down. While I was preoccupied with this however, another soldier had come up behind me with a sword. I made a desperate attempt at a block, but his sword slid down the blade easily, slicing into my right shoulder. I was still able to hold the sword, but I knew I was in trouble. The men were trying to surround me, and I was constantly being beaten from behind. Finally, another soldier got through my defense, and cut my leg below the knee. I fell onto the ground hard and I desperately tried to push myself around into a better defensive stance on the ground. The soldier disarmed me with absurd ease; he raised his sword to strike me down, and then, he was gone. He had been blown back by an air blast from Aang, whom had flown down on his glider.

"Are you alright?" he called, forcing several more soldiers and a tank backwards.

"Yea, I think so," I called back, finally able to push myself onto my feet with the help of an abandoned spear. As I watched, I saw the tanks that Aang had flipped cabin's turn over and keep advancing. I managed to metalbend one of the tank's wheels off before Aang yelled,

"Get up to the terrace; you're too injured to help now!" I silently agreed, but it still took me a while to reach the terrace steps. By then, others had come and helped me up to the second level. I turned and saw Katara fly down on Appa; she seemed to be doing a better job at stopping the tanks than I had. She used her waterbending to destroy them or disable them. However, there were still at least a dozen coming towards the edge of the terrace. Aang, Katara, and Teo looked like they had decided to cut their losses for the moment and retreat to higher ground. They reached the terrace relatively unharmed, but Aang had some small burns and Katara had a cut on her cheek. They quickly gathered around to commence in some hasty council.

"Were all out of bombs!" Teo cried.

"Where is Sokka with that war balloon?" Katara asked hopelessly. As she said this, a large red object rose from beside the terrace. I immediately recognized it as the war balloon, now carrying four enormous sacks of slime. As it floated rather serenely over the Fire Nation soldiers, I was surprised that they did not start attacking. Then I caught sight of the Fire Nation insignia embossed on the side of the balloon. Just as I noticed this, I saw Sokka cut loose one of the enormous sacks. It exploded on the ground as Aang cried gleefully,

"Yea! Sokka!" I joined in with all the hollering and whoops of laughter until the last bomb had been dropped. Then we noticed something; the tanks were still coming. I looked desperately back up at the balloon, where Sokka and the Mechanist seemed to be having an argument, and then Sokka heaved the coal fuel burner from the balloon and into a crevasse below.I saw fire come screaming up out of the crevasse, blowing soldiers away as it headed towards the terrace.

"Everyone get down!" I screamed in turn, throwing myself down just as the explosive forces blew over my head. Fortunately, the surrounding people reacted fast enough not to be blown off the terrace, and for a moment, there was nothing but smoke. As it cleared and the mass of people stood up, I saw that the only remains of the Fire Nation was dangling chains on the cliff, and small figures in the distance running away.

"My Dad and Sokka!" Teo cried, and Aang flew towards the falling balloon in the distance. Obviously after they had gotten rid of their fuel source, they had started falling, and that provided the reason for the argument I had seen earlier. Aang returned, with a slightly windswept Mechanist and Sokka in tow.

"They're retreating!" Aang confirmed as he swooped in with the other two,

"We've won!" There were answering cries and whoops of joy from the crowd, which I could not return for the suffocating hug of which I had become a part. It was comprised of Sokka, Katara, Aang, Teo, and Teo's dad. It was a little painful, because of my injuries, but I felt better because of it. As they let go, I felt something rise up in my chest, and before I could stop it I said,

"Thank you guys. But I think I should say something first. You three, and you too Teo; you accepted me without knowing who I truly am, and I wouldn't be here if it were not for that. However, it would make me feel more comfortable if I knew you really accept me into your group." I had no idea what I was saying, and it did not seem to make sense, but Katara said,

"Of course we accept you,"

"Yea, you're cool." Aang said,

"Gālon, it was great for me to be able to meet you," Teo answered. I felt very relieved with the enthusiasm and turned to Sokka. He seemed to hesitate for half a moment before saying,
"I'd say you're officially part of Team Avatar; and it doesn't even matter that you're from the Fire Nation." Everyone laughed at this, except for me, because I knew he was being serious. I smiled and leant more on the spear I still had.

"Thanks again, guys." I said. Later, as we said goodbye to the inhabitants, Aang expressed his gratitude that the temple had not been left empty, and was now inhabited by the wonderful people we had met. And even though it did not happen at the time I had expected, I felt grateful that I had been accepted, and now could look ahead, to new adventures.

Sorry about the really misplaced excuse for having Galon "truly" accepted into the Gaang, but I couldn't find another place to put it.