Hey, guys! Sorry for the long wait on the chapter. I work at a college and September was a bit crazy which put writing on a hold. But enough of excuses let's get onto the chapter. I have to admit, this is probably the episode that I've been least excited for in Book Two. Battle heavy episodes aren't really my favorite thing to write. I did manage to work in the fandom's beloved name for Team Avatar, something that I've been wanting to use for a while now but decided to wait until I could bring it up here. Now let's get onto the chapter. I don't own anything. Avatar the Last Airbender belongs to Nick. Enjoy!
The Drill
The Water Tribe siblings and Toph didn't make it far from the exit of the Serpent's Pass before Aang came flying back. They all looked at him confused.
"Aang, what are you doing here? I thought you were looking for Appa?" Katara questioned.
"I was, but something stopped me. Something big," he told them, not giving the group that many details. "Come one, it will be easier to understand when we get to the wall."
The others exchanged another confused glance but nodded, the worried look on Aang's face telling them that something big was up. Kicking it into gear the gang ran over to the wall where Toph and Aang earthbended a platform, lifting them up the wall. When they first reached the top though no one saw anything.
"Now what's so big that Appa has to wait?" Sokka asked.
"That," Aang said, pointing out the giant drill approaching the wall as eight tanks flanked it on either side.
"That's a good reason," Celina muttered, taking in the seriousness of the situation they walked into. Why couldn't they just catch a break? As the group looked down over the edge of the wall, trying to figure out what to do a guard appeared.
"What are you people doing here? Civilians aren't allowed on the wall," he questioned them.
"I'm the Avatar. Take me to whoever's in charge," Aang informed him.
The guard was surprised and took a minute to register who Aang was but nodded and then ushered the gang to the general's area. It still had opened walls that allowed people to look out over the land outside the outer wall. The only differences were that it had a roof and a desk where the general, whose name they learned was Sung, was sitting.
"It is an honor to welcome you to the outer wall young Avatar, but your help is not needed," General Sung assured him.
"Not needed?" Aang questioned.
"Not needed," General Sung repeated smugly. "I have the situation under control. I assure you the Fire Nation cannot penetrate this wall. Many have tried to break through it, but none have succeeded."
He led the gang out towards an open area where he showed off Earth Kingdom soldiers standing near stacks of boulders. Where they were positioned to fire was the barren land where the drill was advancing from while on the other side were fields of wheat. None of which assured that group that the soldiers would be able to handle the Fire Nation technology that was coming their way.
"What about the Dragon of the West? He got in," Celina challenged, not liking how cocky the general was.
"Well… uh… technically yes," General Sung agreed, startled. "But he was quickly expunged. Nevertheless, that is why the city is named Ba Sing Se. It's the impenetrable city. They don't call it Na Sing Se. That means penetrable city."
"Yeah, thanks for the tour, but we still got the drill problem," Toph said, ignoring his attempt at a joke.
"Not for long. To stop it, I've seen an elite platoon of earthbenders called the Terra Team," General Sung explained.
"That's a good group name, very catchy," Sokka said.
After that everyone watched as the Terra Team attacked one of the tanks, propelling it into the air before coming crashing back down, destroying it. The then rode a surge of earth through the gap left in the tanks formation, destroying the other ones as they left. With the tanks gone the Terra Team moved onto the drill. The earthbenders tried to wedge several pillars of stone against the side of the drill but they were shattered almost instantly. With the drill under attack, Mai and Ty Lee came out to defend it. The Terra Team where just able to block Mai's knives and went to attack them with boulders but Ty Lee got to them first. Furious pressure point attacks from her and the Terra Team dropped.
"We're doomed!" General Sung panicked.
"Get a hold of yourself man!" Sokka exclaimed, slapping the general.
"You're right, I'm sorry," he apologized, rubbing his cheek.
"Maybe you'd like the Avatar's help now?" Toph suggested.
"Yes, please," General Sung begged meekly.
The gang rolled their eyes and then looked over the wall at the approaching drill, trying to think of how they'd defeat it.
"The question is, how are we gonna stop that thing?" Aang pondered before looking over at Sokka, the others following soon.
"Why are you all looking at me?" he asked.
"You're the idea guy," Aang said.
"So I'm the only one who can ever come up with a plan? That's a lot of pressure," Sokka complained.
"And also the complaining guy," Katara commented.
"That part I don't mind," Sokka replied.
"You really should," Celina said and then went back to pondering. "It looks like we're gonna have to get inside the drill in order to stop it but the question is what do we do once we get inside."
Their planning was interrupted as the members of the Terra Team were earthbended from the ground to up onto the wall where the general and the gang were.
"We must get them to the infirmary," General Sung said.
The gang followed along for two reasons. One was for Celina and Katara to heal them. And two because they hoped to get more information on the drill from the ones who were close to it. So, Celina and Katara went to work, gathering water from their water skins and placing it over their skin to examine them.
"What's wrong with them? They don't look injured," General Sung asked.
"Their chi is blocked," Katara explained.
"Two girls ambushed us, one of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs, and suddenly I couldn't earthbend, and I could barely move… and then she cartwheeled away," one of the shoulders explained.
"That would be Ty Lee. She doesn't look dangerous, but she knows the human body and its weak points," Celina told them.
"It's like she takes you down from the inside," Katara added.
This sparked an idea in Sokka. "That's how we're gonna take down the drill. The same way Ty Lee took down all these big earthbenders."
"By hitting its pressure points!" Toph figured out.
"See, this is why you're the idea guy," Celina smiled.
"You come up with just as many ideas," Sokka protested, still not liking being the idea guy.
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure that's because I inherited something from my dad. It feels more like gut instinct sometimes," Celina shrugged.
"How could you inherit something like battle strategy?" Sokka questioned. Celina gave him a pointed look, reminding him who her parents were without spilling the information to the earthbenders. His eyes widened as he realized what she was telling him. "Oh… right."
"But you don't have that advantage. You're just naturally the idea guy and that's really impressive in my book. Be proud of that strategic brain of yours," Celina continued. Sokka was silent for a bit, taking in his sister's words while she went back to work trying to unblock the Terra Team soldier's chi. When they finally hit he smiled softly.
"Thanks, Celina," he said.
Celina looked up at Sokka from the corner of her eye and slightly nodded. "You can really thank me after your plan works and the drill is destroyed. Maybe with some food," she said.
"You want sweets, don't you?" Sokka asked.
"Earth Kingdom baked goods are just so tasty!" Celina exclaimed, causing Sokka to chuckle.
O
The gang made their way down to one of the empty Terra Team trenches thanks to some sneaky earthbending from Aang and Toph. They barely peaked out from their cover, only exposing their eyes so that they could observe the tank as they planned.
"Once I whip up some cover, you're not gonna be able to see, so stay close to me," Toph told them.
The others nodded. With the group understanding what was about to happen Toph jumped into action. She leaped from the trench and used her earthbending to send a mighty blast of dust and broken stone rocketing along the ground near the drill. Jumping out of the trench the others ran close to Toph as they disappeared into the cloud of dust, heading towards the front of the drill. Once near it, Toph created a hole in the ground that everyone jumped down into before she closed it up, leaving them in utter darkness.
"It's so dark down here, I can't see a thing!" Sokka complained.
"Oh no, what a nightmare," Toph feigned horror.
"Sorry," Sokka apologized.
Toph took them to the underneath of the drill before the gang popped back up out of the earth. From underneath they were completely hidden, allowing them to look around for an opening. They were lucky to discover that a panel on the underbelly of the drill had come off at some point, allowing for an opening. Aang used his airbending to jump up into it and then hung upside down so that he could help the others up into the drill. He helped Katara in first, then Celina, and then Sokka. They waited for Toph to come over so that she could be pulled in herself but the earthbender remained where she was.
"Aren't you coming?" Celina asked her.
"No way am I going in that metal monster. I can't bend in there. I'll try to slow it down out here," Toph replied.
"Alright then. Well good luck and be careful," Celina said and then headed off deeper in the drill with her siblings and Aang.
Sokka took the leadership role, leading them through the red-lit corridors of the drill, the passageways covered in pipes and valves. He paused to study them.
"I need a plan of this machine. Some schematics that show what the inside looks like. Then we can find it's weak points," he said.
"Where are we gonna get something like that?" Aang questioned. Sokka didn't answer him, instead, he took out his machete and hacked off a steam valve, causing the room to fill with steam. "What are you going! Someone's gonna hear us!"
"That's the point. I figure a machine this big needs engineers to run it, and when something breaks…" Sokka went to explain.
"They'll come to fix it," Celina finished, a smirk on her face.
So, they hid in the piling steam, waiting for an engineer to come. It didn't take long, and when the Fire Nation engineer appeared holding a wrench and scroll Celina took the opportunity and used the steam to trap the man in a cocoon of ice. Sokka smiled as he was able to get the scroll out of his hand and then the group ran off to look over it, letting steam fill up the corridor once again.
"It looks like the drill is made up of two main structures. There's the inner mechanism, where we are now, and the outer shell. The inner part and the outer part are connected by these braces. If we cut through them, the entire thing will collapse," Sokka explained as they looked over the schematics.
"Looks like we have a plan," Celina smiled.
O
When the group arrived at the place where the outer shell and inner shell were connected the benders couldn't help but frown seeing the massive steel beam that they were going to have to cut through.
"Wow, it looks a lot thicker in person than it does in the plans. We're going to work pretty hard to cut through that," Sokka said.
"What's this we stuff? Celina, Aang, and I are going to have to do all the work," Katara complained.
"Look, I'm the plan guy, you three are the cut stuff up with waterbending guys. Together we're Team Avatar!" Sokka replied.
The benders looked at each other unimpressed with the team name that Sokka came up with. "Okay, while we work on the beam, you work on your team name ideas," Celina told him.
Celina and Katara took water out of their flasks and began using it to cut the meta, cutting it. While Celina took care of one side by herself, Katara and Aang took care of the other, sending the water back and forth to each other. Sweat formed on their brows as they cut through the beam. Sokka watched in anticipation, encouraging his sister's and Aang's bending. The three were covered in a layer of sweat when they finally managed to cut through the beam.
"At this rate, we won't do enough damage before the drill reached the wall," Katara said exhausted.
"I don't know how many more of those I have in me," Aang admitted, sitting down to rest.
"Even with the three of us going at one," Celina said breathing heavily. She was exhausted. Even though Celina had a bit more power to her bending than her sister, Katara had Aang's help with the cutting of the beam, Celina tackled her side by herself. Bending water back and forth with enough power to cut metal was draining.
"Maybe if you used your spirit abilities we'd be able to move through them faster," Sokka suggested.
"Do you even remember what happened back at the library?" Celina asked, annoyance in her voice, causing Sokka to tense a bit. He wished her bit of anger was just because she was tired. "I only lasted five minutes using my spirit abilities before completely blacking out. You want to be carrying my unconscious body out of a collapsing mechanism filled with Fire Nation soldiers?"
Their conversation was interrupted as a shudder and moan passed through the length of the drill. "Looks like we won't have to. Do you hear that? We took it down. We better get out of here fast!" Sokka smiled. Relieved, the four of them began to race out but paused when a voice came over the loudspeakers.
"Congratulations crew, the drill has made contact with the wall of Ba Sing Se!" the man over the loudspeaker celebrated. The four frowned. Sokka was the first one to move, running straight at the beam and pushed it, trying to get it to move to no avail.
"C'mon brace, budge!" Sokka exclaimed.
"This is bad, really bad," Katara commented.
"With the amount of time we have left there's no way we can cut through the rest of the beams," Celina said.
"Maybe we don't have to cut all the way through," Aang spoke up, becoming inspired by what she said. "Toph has been teaching me that you shouldn't give 100% of your energy into any one strike. Sokka take a fighting stance." The older boy did as he said as Aang began to demonstrate as he explained. "You've gotta be quick and accurate. Hit a series of points, and break your opponent's stance. And when he's reeling back, you deliver the final blow. His own weight becomes his downfall. Literally." As Aang finished his explanation Sokka collapses to the ground from Aang's blows.
"So we just need to weaken the braces, instead of cutting all the way through," Celina figured out.
"Then I'll go to the top of this thing and deliver the final blow," Aang said.
"And boom, it all comes crashing down!" Sokka exclaimed excited.
"Everyone inside that wall, the whole world, is counting on us," Aang said.
"The whole world, minus the Fire Nation that is," Sokka corrected, a grin on his face.
The others just looked exasperated with him and instead of commenting went back to work on the beams. Once again Katara and Aang teamed up with each other to take one while Celina got another one by herself. Not only was it quicker only cutting half way but they were able to get to more braces with two being worked on at once. In the time it took the three of them to take down the first beam they had already finished working on three others. After more time working on the beams they managed to get a good amount for Aang to go deliver the final blow.
"Good work Team Avatar! Now Aang just needs to… Duck!" Sokka shouted.
They ducked just in time to avoid the blue flame that was sent towards them. Looking just they saw that Azula, Mai, and Ty Lee were standing on a massive girder above them.
"Wow, Azula, you were right, it is the Avatar! And friends," Ty Lee said, her tone becoming a bit seductive at the end as she looked at Sokka.
"Hey," Sokka smiled and waved to her, finding the Fire Nation girl attractive.
"Seriously, Sokka!" Celina scolded as she dragged her brother out of the room.
The Fire Nation trio dropped down from the girder and went to pursue the gang. Aang sent an air blast at Ty Lee who went to block their chi, sending the girl back and giving the group more time to escape. Everything was going fine until they came to an intersection in the corridors.
"Guys get out of here, I know what I need to do," Aang told his friends, heading in on direction.
"Wait! You need this water more than I do!" Katara called out and then tossed her water flask towards him. Aang nodded in thanks to her as he continued down the hallway while the Water Tribe siblings headed in the other direction. Unfortunately, the way they decided to go lead them towards a dead end that only contained a large hatch.
"Slurry pipeline," Katara read from the sign placed above it. "What does that mean?"
"It's rock and water mixed together, it means our way out," Sokka explained as he opened the hatch.
Peering into the hatch they were a bit digested seeing the slurry but started headed down inside the pipe. As Katara started lowing herself into the pipe Mai and Ty Lee appeared. Seeing them Mai sent knives flying towards the siblings which Celina managed to block, drawing water from her flask and created a small wall of ice to stop them. Celina glared at Mai. She returned the ice to liquid, causing the knives to fall at her feet, and sent it towards Mai and Ty Lee. It flung them back just enough to allow Sokka and Celina to join Katara in the slurry pipe. They rode the cascade of slurry down out of the pipe which emptied out at the end of the drill. The siblings let out a shout as they landed in the pile of slurry. As they recovered the Water Tribe siblings looked up to see that Ty Lee was about to emerge from the pipe exhaust. Thinking quickly Celina and Katara used their bending to send the slurry back into the pipe, trapping Ty Lee in the slurry.
"Why don't you try blocking my chi now circus freak!" Katara shouted up at her.
Celina winced, losing her concentration for a moment. "Can we stop using that word, please?" she muttered softly.
"Sorry," Katara apologized to her sister.
"You two keep that up. The pressure will build up in the drill, then when Aang delivers the final blow, it will be ready to pop!" Sokka encouraged. So, the girls kept it up. Stopping up the slurry for Aang's final blow. They were doing fine but were becoming more and more annoyed as Sokka tried to encourage them though it came off more as lecturing. "Good technique sisters! Keep it up! Don't forget to breathe!"
"Sokka, stop telling two master waterbenders what to do. You've been really annoying when we're trying to work," Celina growled.
"Yeah, I am just about sick and tired of you telling us what to do all day. You're like a chattering Hog Monkey!" Katara complained.
"Just bend the slurry woman!" Sokka screamed at them.
"Shut up!" Celina shrieked at her brother, her eyes briefly glowing her spirit blue.
Sokka froze upon seeing the glow of her angry eyes a second time, scared of what she might do. It was Katara however that acted, breaking her concentration on the slurry pipe to bend a rush of slurry at Sokka, launching him back into the muck. With their brother taken care of the girls went back to their bending.
"You guys need some help?" Toph asked, coming out from underneath the drill.
"Help us plug up this drain!" Katara replied.
Walking up to Celina Toph braced her muddy legs and coordinated with Celina and Katara, driving the slurry even further up into the pipe. With the drill ready to blow all they had to do was wait on Aang who delivered the final hit within a few minutes. A chain of slurry eruptions began at the front segment of the drill and was quickly working its way towards the rear. Toph, being able to feel the vibrations of it through her earthbending was the first one to be alerted to this.
"Here it comes!" she alerted the others.
To save them from the waves of slurry that was heading their way, Toph earthbended a huge pillar, elevating them from the slurry just in time. With Celina, Katara, and Toph not holding the slurry back anymore Ty Lee was slammed against the pillar, continuing to be held there by the powerful current of the slurry. The group watched happily as a section of the drill slumped to a stop, clouds of steam rising from it, as the drill fully stopped. Wiping and bending the mud off them the four of them smiled.
O
The gang stood on top of the wall, watching the sunset over the barrens and the destroyed drill. They were exhausted from the day's attack but relieved that they won the battle.
"I just want to say, good effort out there today Team Avatar," Sokka said enthusiastically.
"Enough with the Team Avatar stuff. No matter how many times you say it, it's not gonna catch on," Katara said slightly annoyed.
"How about… the Boomerang Squad! See it's good cause it's got Aang in it," Sokka suggested.
"I kinda like that one," Aang admitted.
"Why not just, The Gaang? G – A – A – N – G. That's simple enough," Celina jumped in.
"I like that one way better," Toph commented.
"Let's talk about this more on our way into the city," Katara suggested.
"That reminds me, you owe me sweets," Celina smiled as the group began to walk away.
"At least you're easy to please," Sokka said.
"Hey, it's something we have in common. Give us good food and we'll be happy," Celina shrugged.
"She is right," Katara remarked.
"Food does sound good right around now," Aang said.
"Great! Let's get going then. Time to get some sweets!" Celina celebrated, causing the others to laugh.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to leave me a review and a crazy "So Tell Me About Yourself" answer. And be sure to check out my profile for character designs and my writing schedule.
"So Tell Me About Yourself" is an inside joke between me and my friends which started from my one friend's hatred for the typical getting-to-know-you question "So tell me about yourself". She, being so annoyed with the phrase, gave a silly answer that she murdered people in their sleep. When she brought it back to me and my other friend we both gave a silly answer. That is where the idea for my account name came from.