Avatar the Last Air Bender:Alterations: Aang/Lee
The Drill
"This drill will be the crowning achievement in the weaponry history of the Fire Nation…" War Minister Qin said.
He leaned over the railing of the observation deck in the large cockpit that resembled the quarters of a ship.
"All ahead, raise us up!" Qin called down to the men at the helms, and levers. Before him was a whole floor of controls and gears which were being operated by pilots, enginers and status servers, all to make sure the drill stayed on course in the direction it was going.
At the command of their War Minster the pilot wearing a mask pulled a large leaver and shouted into the cone that hung from the ceiling of the cockpit by a tube. "All ahead 1 third! Raise her up!" he said.
The cockpit shook a bit, then slowly but surely as if on a crane, it rose up on large supporter beams at least 4 stories above the drill to get a bird's eye view of the penetration of the wall.
In the back of the steering room, were errected 3 thrones, made originally for the Fire Lord and two generals, but for the test run they now had and the Fire Lord himself being back in the Fire Nation, Azula appropriately sat in the upper middle throne, whilest Ty Lee and Mai sat in the two at her left and right hand.
The were erected in a way that they could over see the men over the destruction of the wall, and the men over seeing the controls.
"Soon…" the war minister mused, "The wall will be penetrated, and you Your Majesty, will rule Ba Sing Se before the sun has set…"
Azula didn't seem amused, Ty Lee was wide eyed and looking at all the controls and shiny objects. Mai was slouched in her throne as much as the seating space could afford her without her being completely vertical, with her feet hanging over the arm rest. She fingered a knife through her fingers boredly.
"Tell the Marshell Brago that his ground troops can prepare…" Azula said in an even tone, truth be told she was very happy about the goings on, but she wouldn't afford Qin to see that, she didn't need him so over confident that he made a mistake…again.
Qin nodded and relayed the message down to the yes men at the controls. "Alert the Lieutenant Marshel Brago his men are to be at the ready." He said.
Brago was in his chambers, looking at his paper and Quill pen…the paper seemed blank, he had only written "Dear sister" …well half of that sentence, how could he…make himself sound happy? He wasn't usually even that good with verbalized words about heartfelt matters.
"I'm…" he started, "Happy…" he continued writing "That you've followed your…" no no that wasn't it…
"Sorry I haven't replied back yet, we haven't had a lot of free Hawks lately- " No that was making it obvious he was avoiding writing back. "We're about to invade Ba Sing Se…" that was a start.
Suddenly the voice of War Minster Qin ironically sounded on the speaker in the corner of his room.
"Lieutenant Marshall Brago to troop deck, Lieut. Marshall Brago to troop deck…" He looked down at his paper which still only had Dear sister, and We're about to invade, written on it, sighed and got up, he'd have to give his sister his condolences later…perhaps he'd be in a better mood after rampaging through the city.
Toph was walking along side Daiken as the group journeyed around the Massive wall to the Turtle Tram Station where they could bored a monorail trolley inside.
She could feel slight tremors beneath her feet, not like an earth quake but still the earth was moving.
"Is something wrong?" Daiken asked. Toph glanced behind her seeing nothing then shook her head, shrugging.
"Eh…" she said, "Just some tremors, they happen from time to time….still they aren't in spurse, its one long one…"
There was silence meaning that he had his answer and therefore had no reason to reply back.
What was the matter with her, she was a tough girl, get it together….just thank the guy for saving your bacon! You aren't trying to come up with a sonet! She said to herself.
"Um thanks by the way…" she said, in a manner that sounded a little too cavaler for how she meant it, and regretted it afterwards.
Daiken simply replied, "No trouble." still walking.
Toph bit her lip and followed up, "Really, thanks a lot…" hoping that didn't sound worse.
Daiken looked at her this time, so she guessed by how she heard his collar and scarf ruffle.
"I didn't realize you couldn't swim until you started flailing…you didn't need to be in the water while that battle insued." He said.
Toph blew some hair out of her eye, "Pssh yeah…not the best composure under pressure…"
Daiken objected, "Actually its nothing to be ashamed of, if I'm understanding you correctly, your abilities rely on your perception of your suroundings. And water isn't solid enough for you to do that, yes?"
Toph nodded, "Uh uh…sort of like being blind again…I mean before I could see with my feet and ears and…" she stopped herself, she was rambling, she didn't ramble, what was up?
Daiken looked ahead again, "Well it's not that different from sand, there's no immediate solid shape to it, so to be stuck in it can be a pain unless your accustomed to bending it at that small a measure."
"How do you do that?" she asked finally, "I mean, you just came up knowing exactly how to bend each individual grain?"
Daiken raised his eye brow thinking about it, "In a…sense?..." he said, "Think of it like Math, are you good at it?"
Toph chuckled, "I wish…I mean I know basic stuff but I don't know complex junk."
Daiken grinned, "Well some people, not me included mind you, are experts at that complicated stuff because they naturally get it. The best way I can explain myself is somehow being able to understand each clump of unsettled dirt rock, forcing it to be one…I just...do." He said shrugging.
"Think of it as earth that you move with dirt, it's all broken down rock, same as rock is hardened denser dirt in a sense…since earth is in so much around us, I think it's possible to bend more things than just Earth…"
Toph looked at him, "Like what? Trees? Metal?" she said beginning to draw the line as his philosophy.
Daiken scoffed a tad replying, "Of course not trees…I don't think at least…but metal probably…we do break down oar to make it, and oar is rock so….theoretically yeah."
Toph chuckled a bit, "Boy your odd…" shaking her head.
Daiken did his half grin again looking at their path, "My sentiments exactly…if you meant that in a good way."
Toph smiled to herself, "I did…" then turned her head so he wouldn't see her smiles size as she realized it was huge. She cleared her throat changing the subject.
"Is anyone else feeling those tremors?" she asked, perfect timing, they were getting more and more noticeable by the minute, still nothing serious enough to be an all out quake, and she felt no roots to a fault line anywhere near there. The Earth Kingdoms capital would have built fail safes around anything like that.
Katara felt her chin, "Kind of…" she admitted, "Sokka do you?"
Sokka was snapped out of whatever thought wave he was in, "Huh?" he asked.
"Did you feel-" Katara started then looked up seeing… "AANG?" she said, "I thought you were looking for Appa."
Aang landed with a look of serious that made her realize something was terribly wrong.
"There's no time for that now, the Fire Nation is here…and they have a machine that could bring down the wall." Aang said.
"What?" everyone said in unison.
"How much farther to the train station inside?" Aang said.
Sokka glanced at his map, "Nearly there…why?"
"We need to get Ying and the Baby inside as fast as possible!" Aang said,
"We're not even safe within the great wall…" Ying said looking at their new baby Hope.
"It will be alright." Her husband said hugging his two treasures to him.
"You there!" came a voice.
They looked to the side to see an Earth Kingdom Guard approaching with a long lance atop an ostrich horse.
"No loitering outside the wall! All he civilians are to get in line at the- "
"SIR!" Aang said interrupting, "There's no time, I'm the Avatar, I need to speak to you chief of defense…and this family needs to get inside the walls immediately!"
Katara beamed a bit at Aang, him taking charge like this was…quite taking.
"What?" the guard said in indignation and confusion.
"The Fire Nation's attacking!" Toph said, "I can feel the tremors even more now, it's a machine like Aang said, and its getting closer and closer to the wall as we speak."
"….WHAT?" the guard asked even more confused, even his ostrich horse looked at them sideways.
Aang rubbed his head, then in frustration looked at Toph and Daiken, then gestured with his fingers to the top of the wall.
Daiken nodded, and applied sand from the dust around them to make a spotch against the side of thew all.
Toph feeling this knew what was to be done and using the sand Daiken had applied to ease the friction, she jolted the patch of Earth Aang and his team stood on like an elevator along the side of the great wall, soaring upwards .
"HEY!" The guard said even more confused, "You can't!-" he was cut off by Ying's husband as he grabbed the reigns of his ostrich horse.
"Did you not hear what the Avatar said? This city is under attack and my wife and child would like to be on the other side of this wall when it happens!"
Meanwhile above them, Aang, Toph and Daiken had successfully mounted the huge wall and were now looking out over the ledge of it at the huge device that was slowly moving towards the wall.
"Whoa…." Sokka said rubbing his neck.
"You there!" came a voice, similar in indignance. They all turned to see yet another guard of the Earth Kingdom glaring at them, with several soldier behind him.
"No civilians are permited atop the wall!" he said sternly.
Aang walked right up to the man and stared up at him narrowing his eyes with equal seriousness.
"I'm the Avatar…"
The wind blew his tunic as he said this, to implicate he meant business, "And I need to speak to whoever's in charge…"
4 miles from the Foi Tan Woods
Myisho and her sisters arrived at a little village where they were told to get supplies from before they made the journey back again to reach the walls of Ba Sing se.
Getting off their Ostrich horses, they noticed the town was partially scortched in some buildings, so the fire Nation had been there…also there were signs of rocks being pelted through the buildings, so perhaps it wasn't Fire Nation, simply muraders with Torches…
But no one was walking about, where was everyone? A bell wrung somewhere in the town, not purposefully but lightly, as if the wind was blowing it from wherever it hung.
"Stay close sisters…" Myisho said, keeping her hand on her sword. Twan-Ni took out her bow and kept her fingers near the quiver on her hip. They all walked into the town.
Wind blew a piece of parchment by their feet before disappearing in an alley on the other side.
A girl's squeak of fright suddenly caught their attention, as they looked to the right, they saw a little girl rushing into a building.
Almost immediatly a dozen towns folk with spears and work axes came out, a few were in bending stances.
Myisho's sword was already out, and an arrow was out of Twan-Ni's quiver and placed on her bow in a blink, but she hadn't pulled the arrow back yet, they weren't there to fight, this was obviously a misunderstanding.
"We are not your enemy's!" Myisho said, putting her sword lower to indicate she did not mean to engage.
"Pa its Kyoshi warriors!" came a voice from within the crowd, and they hummed a little amongst themselves before lowering most of their weapons, some still kept theirs up. Something or someone had spooked these people considerably.
"We ARE of the Kyoshi order on Mt. Kyoshi, whats happened here?" Myisho said feeling a bit more confident, and trying to sound like Suki would.
"This towns seen no end of bloodshed…" a woman said, "First our son's, then…" she stifled a sniff as she cried.
"Who did this?" the Kyoshi warrior Quiesho asked, putting her fan back.
The little girl who had cried before now came back to the front of the group, then said;
"He killed my grampa…." Before sobbing.
"Who did?" Myisho asked again, getting on one knee in front of her.
The girl looked around her shoulder at her mother they guessed, who nodded to her, she turned back to Myisho to look her in the eye with her own glassy ones.
"The pale cooking man…" she whispered as if saying his name would bring him back.
The other sisters gave double takes or blinked and Myisho herself leaned in closer, "What was that? I'm sorry, the Pale-cooking-man?" she asked.
The little girl nodded and rushed back hugging her mother's legs. The young woman stroking her daughters hair was wiping a tear off her own face.
"Those Fire Nation….Swine!" she said through her tears.
"I've seen my share of charring by warfair , but this…this is different." A man with a discolored eye said in the crowd.
"Would you let us see him?" Myisho asked not knowing what else that could be done.
After being led through one of the houses hallways they came to a room with bed by the window, on the bed was someone covered with a white cloth.
A man was sitting by the bed looking at the covered person, he looked up when he saw the Kyoshi warriors.
"We're here to help…" Myisho said so that he wouldn't get up. "We're hoping we can help…know what to look for in who ever did this…" Twan-Ni said. "Would it be permissible if we…saw the body?"
The man hesitated for a minute then looked at the woman with the child and nodded after she gave him a reassuring look.
He stepped back and looked away as Myisho bravely stood up to the cloth and put her two fingers on the underside of it, she shut her eyes not sure if she wanted to see this, and….
She gasped covering her mouth as she pulled it back, just to show the face.
"My god…" she said.
The Wall of Ba Sing Se
"I'm sorry…" said Captain of the Outer Wall guard, "It is an honor to be in your presence Young Avatar, and we thank you kindly for your concern...but your help is not needed." He said with a contented grin.
"Not needed?" Aang said raising a brow not understanding.
"Not. Needed." The man repeated smiling again, his long mustache which extended bellow his chin rose with his huge smile. He sat hunched over his desk due to what seemed like the weight of the royal armor he had on.
"I!" he said raising a finger as he stood from his chair, "Have the situation under control…many have attempted to penetrate this wall…and none have succeeded…" he began strolling to a window of his office looking out over the wall.
"Except the white Dragon of the West…" Toph coughed. The man's eyes grew and quickly turned around to face them.
"Well yes…er…in a sense….he did manage to get over but….he was QUICKLY expunged!" he said as a matter of factly.
"There've been many a machine from cannons to catapults that have attempted to bring this master piece down. And as you can see, none have prevailed, that's why it's called the Impenetrable city…they don't it NA-Sing Se…"
He suddenly began bursting in laughter at his own joke, then seeing the reactions on the children's faces clarified, "That means the Penetrable city…" he said raising his finger instructively again.
"Very nice…" Daiken said arms folded, "But in case you haven't noticed, this isn't a catapult or some small one manned machine…that thing is larger than one of their warships and its closing in fast."
"Not to worry!" the man chortled passing them by, "It shan't be for long…to take care of it, I've sent an elite plattoon of expert Earth Benders called…"
There was a pause, and the group realized he was using it for dramatic emphasis.
"The TERRA TEAM!" he finished proudly.
Toph rubbed her head as if the cliché name hurt to hear.
"That's a good name…" Sokka said rubbing his chin, "Catchy, cool, and intimidating!"
The Captain of the Outerwall guard smiled chuckling, "I like this young man!"
"Figures…" Toph groaned.
Meanwhile bellow, the "Terra Team" was charging the group of Tanks that were riding alongside he great metal drill. There were 48 of them in total, all wearing the gold, round brimmed hats with green tassels on them of the Earth Kingdom, all with hard leather cuffs, and fingerless straps on their arms so they could easily use their bending and strength should they have to strike or punch a rock.
"For the Earth King!" the leader of the group bellowed and they all moved in unison, sending a shaft of Earth that tipped a Tank on its side into the path of another Tank, making the whole line go off course to avoid crashing.
The other members of the Terra Team began trapping the Tanks in Rock, some of their treads ground their way through the rock, but there was little for the ones on their sides to do to fight back even after that.
After creating a significant gap through their line of protective tanks, the Terra Team speedily made their way towards the drill itself.
They erected a huge slab of rock up out of the Earth and drove it as hard as they could into the drill's side.
Its purpose was to tip the giant machine over, but it didn't so much as slow or budge it.
They tried after this, to jam as much of the rock spires into its middle parts so the gears wouldn't work, but as steam erupted from the chimney's on the top and the Drill roared to life again, the gear simply turned and ground up the rock like sugar.
Azula looked out at the battle from the observation tower at the top of the drill and glanced back at Mai who looked as if she was ready to stab herself with her own knife from being so bored.
"Mai…Ty…be dears and go help Brago and his men take out those pests…" she said smirking.
Ty Lee sat up from where she had just been napping, Mai got up out of her throne and whipped her knife back in her sleeve mumbling, "Ugh, finally! Something to do…"
"But…" Ty Lee began, "But what Ty Lee?" Azula asked turning around with her hands behind her back, Ty Lee gulped, "Nothing!" She said hurrying after Mai.
Inside the boarding compartment on the side of the drill which was to be used for when they broke through the wall, Brago and his Kite Betalion crouched waiting, they all had their masks on except for Brag who preferred not to wear his helmet, he said it impaired him.
"Steady men…" he said. They peered out the peek hole of their hidden compartment at the Terra Team's large mound of earth nearing their side of the drill.
"Now!" Brago said, and his men kicked the leaver making the wall they were behind swing open like a draw bridge.
They all leapt out and onto the mound of Earth as it came alongside them. A Terra Team bender swung his arm in surprise at Brago's head sending a slab of rock at him. Brago ducked by twirling his body around without stopping his momentum in running. He came out of his spinning, drawing his sword in the same motion. As he drew it, he jetted his elbow out and into the solarplexs of the Earth Bender, knocking the wind out of him. Brago then kicked him off of his mount on top of the rock spire and he fell half a story down before lying unconscious on the ground.
His men were already in motion sliding down the sides of drill and leaping themselves onto the rock walls the Terra Team were raising to stop the machine.
They had out their swords and hatches and either using their bending or martial arts skill, hacked through their rock defenses and took them out cold as prisoner of war.
But their element of surprise only lasted so long, there were still at least 36 other members of the Terra Team who were taking the advantage of their distance to pelt Brago and his men with huge boulders.
"Take cover! Get out of the Open! Get to the Tanks!" Brago bellowed and charged the benders, having to roll and jump a few times to avoid schizems in the ground or boulders heading for him.
Suddenly a man clutched his arm right before he bent his rock at Brago's blind side, a knife had nicked his wrist.
Looking up, they could see two young woman leaping down from the side of the drill, one of them had a flowing robe and was pelting knives at the Terra Team, forcing them to use their Earth bending to shield themselves. Brago saw it was Mai and Ty Lee.
"What are you doing out here?" Brago asked slicing through a rock coming at his head with his sword.
Mai shrugged reaching in her blouse, "Got bored…." Then threw a knife hidden in it at an Earth Bender.
Brago raised his brow, "You keep knives in there too?" he said, she hid smirk and advanced with him and his men.
Ty on the other hand was unsure what to do…she had to protect her friends but… "TY LEE TO YOUR RIGHT!" Mai yelled.
Ty Lee shrieked and leapt out of the way of an Earth slab coming towards her, it wasn't a difficult thing to dodge but it had caught her by surprise.
In doing so she saw an Earth Bender coming up out of the ground like a Mole behind Mai, "Mai!" she shrieked.
Before an instant passed, she had cart wheeled over Mai's head, landing both her feet on the Terra Teams head. She leapt off of it and did a spinning kick to the rib cage of another, then relayed a series of punches a at his pressure points. She did this 2 or 3 times before realizing these men were now taking as many of their fallen as they could back to the wall and into their turrets.
"They're falling back!" Brago yelled, "Advance, Tanks open fire!"
The Tanks began spewing fire from their flame throwers as they rolled along, forcing the Team back even further, forcing the entire team to retreat.
Brago's Kite Betalion cheered.
"…..We're doomed!" The Captain of the Outer wall sobbed in dismay as he stepped back from his spy glass atop the wall. Sokka slapped the man and grabbed him by his coat collar, "GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF MAN!" he said.
The Outer Wall Captain inhaled desperately, "Your right…your right…." He said attempting to compose himself.
"Do you think you might want the Avatar's help Nooooowww…" Toph asked, stretching out the "Now"
The Outer Wall Captain moved over to Aang, his head hung, "Please?"
Aang nodded, "Alright we'll work on starting to take it down…" Aang said, then they all turned in unison to Sokka who looked over his shoulder before realizing they were looking at him.
"Oh so I'M the only one who can come up with a plan? Okay, I'M THE PLAN-GUY, That's a lot of pressure." He said folding his arms.
"Your also the complainer guy…" Toph said.
"That, I don't mind." Sokka said honestly.
Suddenly one of the Wall guards hurriedly came to their platform.
"Sir!" he said "The troops we've been able to retrieve have made it successfully behind the wall again sir! They're in the infirmary if you wish to interrogate them on the battle."
Inside the infirmary atop the wall, Katara was helping the nurses to heal the wounded, Sokka, Daiken and the rest were helping the men carry more inside.
"These last ones…" The OuterWall Captian said, "They have no wounds…what happened to them…"
"His chi has been cut off…" Katara said.
Aang's eyes grew, and she looked back at him, knowing he was thinking what she was.
"It…it was a girl…she punched me and…all of a sudden, I couldn't bend…couldn't…couldn't move…" the Soldier said.
"Ty…" Aang said bellow a whisper.
"Ty Lee." Katara said, perhaps hearing Aang, perhaps not, "That's her alright, she hits your pressure points, and takes you out from the inside out.
Aang staggered back a step, "No…" he thought, "No she wouldn't…" he said out loud.
"Who wouldn't?" the Outerwall Captain asked confused, Toph quickly put a hand on Aang's shoulder, "he's a little shocked by all of this…" she said hurriedly. The last thing they needed was the defenses of Ba Sing Se to think they had connections to the enemy.
"THAT'S IT!" Sokka suddenly said excitedly, just what they needed to avert attention from that awkward moment.
"That drills' a machine, that means pressure points, gears…works…and if we take those out…"
Daiken finished the rest for Sokka "Yes...we can overcome it from the inside, good thinking!" he said, rubbing his chin.
"See? We're getting along already!" Sokka said slapping Daiken's back, and the look Daiken gave him made him regret doing it quickly after.
Aang held onto his staff as if he needed it for support.
No no…Ty wouldn't do this. Not the one he knew…but this was her handy work…clear as clear. There were a lot of guys down there though, if she hadn't fought them off…in self defense, he added in his head, she may have been under more suspicion from her comrades…that had to be it…it had to.
He could feel Katara's eyes on him, but he couldn't bring himself to look at them…he knew they weren't gloating or angry…and if anything it was because of that he couldn't look at them.