Ch 9 the drill

"So, you want to talk about it?" Wash asked.

"Lets wait until we're in Ba Sing Se." Ursa said.

Approaching the wall, they saw Aang return.

"Aang, I thought you were looking for Appa." Katara said.

"I was. But I saw something. Something big." Aang said.

"If you want to see something big-" Donut put in.

"Donut!" Simmons said, cutting him off.

"What exactly did you see?" Wash asked.

"That." Aang said, as he and Toph improvised an elevator to bring everyone to the top of the wall.

In view, was a large fire nation drill, escorted by a dozen tanks. At the sight of this monster and its escorts, Ying cried aloud in despair as she huddled with her family.

"We're in Ba Sing Se, and we're still not safe. No one is!"

"How are we going to stop that thing? And we as in, everyone except me?" Griff asked.

"I say we get in there, and tear that thing apart from the inside out." Sarge said, loading his shotgun.

Wash observed the drill, and noted the size and thickness. Sarge was right for once. Sarge was right for once?!

"It's the end of the world as we know it." Wash muttered.

"What are you doing here? Civilians aren't allowed on the wall." A soldier said.

"We need to speak with your leader. We can help stop the drill." Wash said.

The soldier nodded, knowing they needed all the help they could get.

Sitting behind a desk, was the general who appeared too confident for his own good.

"It is an honor to meet you, Avatar. But your help is not needed." He said.

"Not needed?" Aang asked.

"Not needed." The general said.

"All I see here is giant slabs of stone. Not what I'd take to destroy the giant drill heading towards us." Sarge said.

"I have the situation under control. I assure you, the fire nation can't break through this wall. Many have tried, but all have failed."

"You know general, since the fire nation hasn't been able to break through the wall, they'll just think out of the box until they make something like that drill. And if that doesn't work-" Simmons started.

"They might start throwing dead and diseased bodies over the wall the poison the city. How do you think I took over that massive blue base by myself?" Sarge asked.

"I wish I was there, sir." Simmons said.

"You just poisoned me, and threw me over the wall. And I simply walked out, because the base was deserted for months." Griff said.

"Really? I'm remembering things very different." Sarge said.

"Can we focus on stopping that drill?" Ursa asked.

"Don't worry. To stop it, I sent a special platoon of earthbenders, called the terra team." The general answered.

"5 bucks says they get their asses owned." Wash said.

"I only have one dollar. I'll need to play the lottery again." Caboose said.

"Again? You spent all your money on the lottery. No wonder you're broke." Tucker said.

The terra team's efforts started by flipping over a steam fire nation tank. When they came close to the drill, they lodged large stone spikes to stop the drill from moving. But the machine continued moving forward, making their efforts useless. The soldiers quickly put up a wall of earth, as knives were sent in their way.

"Great." Wash muttered, looking thru his scope.

"What?" Ursa asked.
"Take a look." Wash said.

Ursa looked thru the scope and saw Ty Lee and Mai easily take down the earth kingdom soldiers. While the soldiers were initially distracted by Mai's knife attacks, Ty Lee appeared from of nowhere, and easily defeated the soldiers by a series of nerve attacks.

"We're doomed!" the general hysterically shouted.

"Get a hold of yourself!" Sokka shouted, slapping him.

"Now would you like our help?" Toph asked.

"Yes, please." The general humbly said.

"So how are we gonna take that thing out?" Aang asked, and his group looked at Sokka.

"Why are you guys looking at me?" Sokka asked.

"You're the idea guy." Aang pointed out.

"So I'm the one who has to come up with the plans? That's a lot of pressure." Sokka complained.

"You're also the complaining guy." Katara said.

"That part I don't mind." Sokka said.

Meanwhile, Wash was loading up on spare ammunition, deciding to take down the drill by himself. Knowing that secrecy was the key to success, he decided not to take any of the red and blues. They would just fuck things up.

"Hey, Wash." Ursa said, watching the freelancer turn around to face her.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Be careful, and good hunting." Ursa said.

"Thanks." Wash said.

Rappelling down the wall, Wash ran towards the drill as fast as they could. To his left, he saw a cloud of smoke appear out of nowhere. He saw the earth kingdom soldiers get taken out of the fight, so who was inside the smoke cover…

"Oh no." Wash muttered, knowing that the Avatar and his friends were the ones responsible.

Running underneath the drill, he saw an entrance hatch and climbed the ladder inside the drill.

"Too easy." Wash muttered, unslinging his DMR and put the bayonet on the end.

Walking thru the corridors, he saw two contacts heading his way. Wash quickly hid and waited for them to pass. When they walked past him, Wash quickly moved onto them. He grabbed the one closest to him, and quickly snapped his neck. The second engineer didn't even notice, as a knife went to his neck and quickly cut the skin, killing him.

After hiding the bodies, Wash took the maps and observed them. The maps showed two layers. An outer and an inner layer. Wash put the map away and headed deeper inside the drill. It suddenly occurred to him, that he didn't have any explosives powerful enough. The meant finding team avatar, and hopefully they had a solution to take down the drill.

"What's this we stuff? Me and Aang will have to do all of the work." Katara said.

Wash turned a corner and walked down a gangplank, DMR in hand.

"What are you doing here?" Sokka asked.

"Same as you. Destroy the drill." Wash said.

"You have anything that can stop it?" Katara asked.

"No. Katara and Aang will have to destroy the drill." Wash said.

Katara and Aang worked tirelessly as they cut thru the first brace, eventually wearing themselves out.

"Come on guys. We can…" Sokka said.

Katara quickly stood up, ready to whip Sokka with her water.

"I mean, you got it." Sokka meekly said.

Aang and Katara finished cutting thru the brace and watched it move, only slightly.

"At this rate, we won't do enough damage before the drill makes contact with the wall." Katara said.

A groaning noise is heard, and Sokka voices everyone's thoughts.

"We took it down. We need to get out of here." Sokka said.

"Attention. The drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se. Start the countdown to victory!" the war minister said.

"Oh fuck." Wash muttered.

Sokka pushed against the brace, not doing anything.

"Are you really that stupid? That brace must weigh more than a ton." Wash said.

"We're putting everything we got into busting these braces." Sokka said.

"Maybe we don't need to. Toph has been teaching me that you shouldn't put all your effort into one thing. You make a series of strikes against your opponent. When they're reeling, you deliver the final blow. His weight becomes his downfall, literally." Aang said.

"So we just need to cut halfway thru the braces." Katara said.

"Then I'll head to the top and deliver the final blow." Aang said.

"Well start cutting." Wash said.

The two waterbenders cut thru brace after brace. Wash monitored their progress, and didn't even register the three contacts that appeared on his motion sensor.

"Now all Aang needs to do is DUCK!" Sokka then shouted, as a blue fireball went over his head.

Wash quickly turned around, DMR trained on the three girls. He saw the same three girls that attacked the group earlier.

Wash stood with team avatar, having Azula pinned. She then threw a fireball, and struck Ursa.

"No!"

Wash put the memory away, and put the crosshairs on the three girls. Without thinking, he pulled the trigger, sending bullets past the three girls.

"Are you some type of guard dog?" Azula snarked.

"You could say." Wash said.

"After you're dead, dear mother is next." Azula said.

"I'd like to see you try." Wash coldly said.

The sounds of more footsteps was heard, and fire nation soldiers came, the gunshots getting their attention.

"Need any help, princess?" the captain asked.

"Take care of him." Azula said.

"Surrender, and you will-"

A rifleshot blew the back of the soldier's head off, and blood pooled on the floor. Wash went into a familiar trance, where he moved like a killing machine. The soldiers poured in, and Wash continued to hose them down. When his rifle was out of ammo, he pulled out his pistol and killed the last soldiers that challenged him.

Holstering his weapon, he went down the path the avatar went. He heard two voices. One was a dour feminine voice.

"Ugh, disgusting."

Her companion, was a ditsy teenage girl.

"Come on. You heard Azula. We have to follow them!"

"Azula can shoot all the lightning she wants. I'm not going in there." Mai said.

Ty Lee jumped into the moving sewage, and Mai closed the hatch. Wash walked towards Mai when she turned around, but it was too late. Wash grabbed her and with good force shoved her against the wall, knocking her out.

At the top of the wall, Ursa and the red and blues watched as the drill went thru the wall with no resistance. And the earth kingdom troops were throwing rocks onto the drill, in the hopes that it would stop it. Moments later, Aang came out from the drill and approached the wall.

"This looks like a good spot, Momo." Aang said, when boulders rained around him.

"General Sung! Tell your soldiers to stop throwing rocks down here!" Aang shouted up.

"Soldiers, whatever you do, don't stop throwing rocks down there!" Sung ordered.

"Man, Griff should be down there, not that kid. Caboose, help me throw Griff over the wall." Sarge said.

"Okay." Caboose said, but didn't move from his spot.

Ursa put the sniper rifle against the wall and went to the general.

"There's a kid down there! Why are you still throwing boulders at him?" Ursa shouted.

"We got everything under control." Sung said.

"Like hell you do." Ursa angrily said, throwing her arms up in disbelief.

Aang continued to cut thru the metal with the water when Momo shrieked, warning him of danger as a fireball went past his head.

"Momo, get out of here!" Aang shouted.

Aang put up a good fight against Azula. Azula continued to shoot precise fire at Aang, destroying the water whip Aang was using against her. The boulders provided an extra boost to Aang's defense, but Azula dodged one and continued her assault. With limited options, Aang build up a wall of earth and fire boulders from the earthen wall. Azula kicked the flying boulders away and sent a powerful blue fireball at the Avatar, sending him against the wall, unconscious.

Just when Azula was about to walk forward, a hail of gunfire riddled the drill around her. Azula back flipped away, and watched as Caboose fired his assault rifle at her.

"Caboose, use your grenades!" Ursa said, seeing a blue ball on his belt.

"Don't let him use a grenade!" Tucker shouted, as Caboose primed a plasma grenade, made the motion to throw it, and it stuck on the wall just in front of him.

"That is the worst throw I ever saw." Tucker said, as he and everyone else backed away.

"Not my fault. Someone put a wall in my way." Caboose said, as the grenade blew, scorching Caboose's armor.

Azula saw the explosion, and fired a lightning bolt at the sim troopers.

"Holy shit! She can throw lightning?" Tucker asked.

Wash broke to the top of the drill and watched as Azula grabbed Aang and pressed him against the wall. He watched as her left hand held a blue fire just above it. Pulling out his pistol, he aimed and pulled the trigger.

Azula held Aang against the wall, intent on scarring him for life. A sharp pain was felt in her hand, and her shoulder. Dropping Aang, she turned around to face Wash, who was still firing at him.

Azula threw a fireball at Wash, only to see him walk right through and in turn, shot her in the leg. Pain racked thru her body, as Azula crawled away from the deadly soldier. She then felt like she was free falling. Aang lifted Azula up with his airbending, and threw her off the drill.

"How are we going to destroy this thing?" Wash asked, when a boulder came down behind Aang.

"That's what I needed for once." Aang said, as he moved the boulder into place, and then cut it into a wedge.

"See you up top." Wash said, as he jumped off the drill.

Aang ran towards the wall and up the side, using his airbending to enhance his movements. When he walked high enough, he turned around and ran down the wall and jumped onto the wedge, forcing it into the drill. Wash watched as the drill seemed to implode on itself. Slurry was pouring out of the broken remains.

"Mission accomplished." Wash said.

The soldiers lifted him to the wall and Wash approached his comrades.

"Agent Washington, that gets the seal of red team approval." Sarge said.

"Thanks, Sarge." Wash said.