Chapter 16: Confrontation

Bidding the group farewell, the guard bended his way back up to the top of the wall; now on the ground level, the teens now had a much clearer view of the massive size of the ever moving machine. It was a threat, no doubt; a drill with that immensity would easily be able to break through the wall of Ba Sing Se. The dark plumes of smoke that were released from the vehicle's surface rose high into the sky until it morphed with the air itself.

"So, first things first, gang," Sokka began, "how do we stop it?"

Everyone else, including Deku, gave Sokka a confused glance.

"...What?...," he asked, "What is everyone looking at me?"

"I dunno, aren't you kind of the 'plan-making' guy?" Aang ventured.

"Wait, you don't expect me to come up with things on the spot, do you?" the watertribe boy exclaimed.

"Well, it is kinda your thing," Toph stated candidly.

Sokka let out an angry moan, "Just because I can come up with some pretty good plans, doesn't mean that I always know what to do."

"Well, you need to think of something fast," Katara said, pointing out towards the fast approaching monster of a machine, "otherwise, the Fire Nation is going to invade Ba Sing Se."

"No pressure," Toph added.

"Ok, you know what -" Sokka began, rubbing his temples in disbelief, "You guys want a plan?" he asked.

They all nodded in unison.

"Hit it as hard as you can," he finally said, "THERE! That's my plan!"

Toph crossed her arms in approval, "hmmmm. Simple, elegant, straight to the point - I like it."

"Yeah," Deku agreed, "but we have to first get passed those two girls who defeated the elite Earth bending squad."

"I call dibs!" Sokka screamed, raising his hand.

Realizing that he was receiving strange looks from his outburst, the dark-haired teen coughed into his hand and regained his composure, "I mean, i'll join you to take those two hot - I mean, 'dangerous' girls."

"Hmmm. I guess Izuku, Sokka, and Katara can take those two on, while me and Toph head for the drill," Aang stated, "me and Toph can use our earthbending to try to slow it down as best as we can."

"Sounds like a plan," Sokka snickerd, earning a shameful head-shake from Katara and a thumbs-up from Aang.

"Ok, let's go," Katara said as the team went into action.

As planned, Sokka, Katara, and Deku took up the front of the charge and headed for the two girls standing guard in front of the drill.

Mai and Ty Lee had spotted the team's preansance ever since they descended the wall on the platform, and they were much too eager for a rematch. Quickly revealing a pair of kunai from her loose sleeves, Mai tossed the weapons in the direction of the teens; however, Sokka was fast on the uptake too and threw his boomerang at the oncoming attack, intercepting the kunai before returning back to him.

"Nice one!" Deku congratulated.

"Thanks! I can alway count on this little guy," he stated, gesturing to the boomerang in his hands.

Ty Lee was the second one to attack, sprinting forward, heading directly for Deku and Sokka; Katara tried to hit the circus girl with her water whip, but a sudden gleam out of the corner of her eye made her just barely dodge two more kunai that whizzed past her face.

Mai glared over at her, "Next time, I won't miss," she said.

"Geez, how many of those things do you even have?" Katara retorted before running head first into battle.

A few feet away, Sokka was struggling to just barely dodge Ty Lee's two fingered attack, much too familiar with how dangerous they were.

"Ah! Hey, watch it," he screamed before narrowly avoiding her attack once again.

"Hmph! You're much cuter when you're not annoying to fight," she pouted as she continued her onslaught of two-finger jabs.

Before she could finally land a hit on the watertribe boy, a hand reached out and grabbed her by the wrist.

"Stop this," demanded Deku.

"Oh! I almost forgot about you," she said with a flirtatious smile, "You look way cuter up close."

"I don't want to have to fight you." he said, peering into her eyes.

His gaze was threatening, but behind those eyes was the look of genuine compassion; he was trying to….understand her. Why?

Ty Lee was genuinely stunned for a moment by his gaze - his eyes looked so kind. However, her transfixion lasted only a couple of seconds before she roughly tore her hand from his grip and cartwheeled a few feet away.

"Really," he said, putting his hands up as a sign of pacificity, "We don't have to do this."

She didn't like this. She didn't like this one bit. Although it was only a moment, her hesitation when he grabbed ahold of her wrist was uncharacteristic of her. She usually never hesitated - ever.

"Ty Lee!" Mai's voice called from across the way.

Still engaged in a fight with Katara, the black-haired assassin nevertheless found time to call out to her teammate.

"I think the avatar just passed us," she said, before narrowly dodging one of Katara's water whips.

Looking back in surprise, Ty Lee saw two figures that had moved past them and were headed directly toward the drill.

"You were only distracting us," the circus girl said in astonishment as she glanced back at the green-haired hero.

"Once again," Deku said, crouching into a fighting position, "I don't want to fight you…..but I will if I have to."

Meanwhile, with Bakugou on the drill….

His progression to the command center hadn't taken very long, and he had already taken out most of the guards that got in his way. It was convenient for there to be signs detailing the direction of all the rooms in the massive machine; he hated to admit it, but without those signs, he might've gotten a little lost.

Thankfully, though, he reached an entrance door to a chamber titled 'control room' at the top in metallic letters; he grinned - whatever lay beyond this door had better be worth it.

Refusing to knock, Bakugo simply took a deep breath, reeled his fist back, and delivered a thunderous punch to the metal door; the barrier flew forward into the room and landed a few feet away from Azula, who immediately turned around, surprise.

"I hate knocking," the blonde murmured.

His voice was gruff and deep; his eyes seemed a bit too dilated for him to be considered sane. Azula could smell it - he was out for blood.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" he said taking a step further into the chamber.

Looking around, he saw a separate plane that was situated a level below the one he was on, by at least three or four feet; lines of people sat in them at chairs that were situated in front of control consouls on various sides of the room. The room was quiet, and all the workers had now turned their attention onto the grinning teen who continued to approach Azula.

"Stop this drill and maybe I won't kick the everlivin' shit outta you," he growled.

"Or don't…..either way's fine with me."

The Fire Nation princess was scared - Bakugo could almost smell the scent of fear on her from there. He was impressed though; she did a good job of hiding it.

"War Minister Qin," she said, gesturing to the man beside her.

"Yes, princess?" the man said, bowing his head respectfully; he nervously kept his eyes on the boy in front of him, but he nevertheless listened tentatively to Azula's instructions.

"I want you to continue pushing the drill forward," she said, not taking her eyes off of Bakugo for a second, "I'll deal with the intruder."

Bakugo said nothing at first, but after a few seconds, his shoulders began to convulse as a sickening laughter escaped his throat.

"HUEHUEHUEHUEHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHAH!"

All of the workers in their seat looked nervously over at one another, over at Azula, and then back at the laughing boy. His ceaseless cakcling echoed throughout the room, travelling even out into the hallway.

"Heh, you'll 'deal with me', huh?" he said through labored giggles, "heh, I'd…"

"LOVE TO SEE YOU TRY."

That final statement didn't come out as a scream or a yell of any kind; in fact, it was the calmest tone with which Azula had heard him speak up to this point. But what scared her the most was how deathly serious he had now become.

His jovial laughs and childish grin had now transformed into a still silence that seemed to overtake the room itself.

That familiar feeling that she had experienced when they first fought a while ago had now returned - fear; but there was something different about this time, HE was different this time. And it wasn't just fear she felt, it was something deeper - something much more primal. It was the unavoidable need to survive. It was inescapable. She felt like, if he wanted to, the blonde teenager could really kill her - right here, right now.

It was….exhilarating.

This overwhelming sense of alertness; the intoxicating element of exhilaration - she had never felt anything like it before.

These newfound and intense feelings were strange enough to her that she did something she wouldn't expect even of herself. She smiled.

No. Not a smile, but a grin. A large, gleeful smirk that was an expression of an animalistic fighting spirit.

"Hey," Bakugo finally said, "Wipe that stupid grin off yer face," he ordered.

Instead of complying with his demand, Azula couldn't help but smile even wider (if that was possible).

Cracking his knuckles, Bakugo tilted his head slightly, "Am I gonna have to fuck you up?"

Azula felt a shiver run down her spine, but it made her smile all the more worth it.

Before the fight could be initiated, however, there was a sudden thunk that shook the inside of the chamber; it wasn't a small shake - it was as if the drill itself was groaning out in pain.

What was even more curious was the fact that the machine seemed to be slowing down; glancing out the window at the no longer approaching wall, Azula turned to the workers in the room.

"What's going on?" she demanded.

"U-umm. I'm sorry princess, but it appears as though there's a problem in the engine room," one of the workers informed.

"What?! Call up those fools in the engine room," she instructed.

"I-I've tried, princess, but no one has responded," he said.

A small chuckle came from behind her; turning back around, Azula had lost her grin from before and now glared at Bakugo in confusion.

"What did you do?" she questioned.

"Heh, ME? Oh, I didn't do anything. But I'm willing to bet my teammate has probably already destroyed your engine," he said.

"Your….teammate?" Azula repeated, apparently not understanding, "you were working with someone?"

"Yep, but he's a real pain in the ass sometimes," the blonde teen said, scratching the back of his neck, "and if he's already destroyed the engine, that means - SHIT! That means that he won the bet! GODDAMNIT!"

Azula stared wordlessly at the boy as Bakugo stomped his foot on the floor in frustration.

Turning back to one of the workers, the Fire princess continued to bark orders, "Get someone down to the engine room, NOW!"

The workers shifted uncomfortably in their chairs, glancing at each other nervously.

"There's no need for that," came a voice from behind Azula once again.

Turning back around, Azula expected to come face to face with a grinning Bakugo once more, but instead she saw someone else standing directly behind the blonde.

"I see that you weren't able to fulfill your part of the bet," Shouto said from behind a groaning Katsuki, "It seems as though I win."

"W-who are you? Where did you come from?"

Azula was both stunned and on her guard due to the sudden arrival of an extra enemy; the blonde teen was already too much for her to handle.

Looking around at the group of workers that lined the room, Shouto spoke up, "I suggest you all exit the drill, otherwise, you might be caught up in the attack."

"What attack?" Azula questioned.

Without answering, Shoto pointed out the window to the ground below that revealed several figures on the move; three of them had engaged Mai and Ty Lee in a battle, but two of them had already passed them and were headed straight toward the drill.

The avatar and Toph were approaching the drill, but Azula didn't look particularly concerned.

"Ha, so what? I can deal with those two," she said, tilting her head back cockily.

"Oh, those aren't the ones you should be worried about," Shouto stated.

Confused, the dark-haired princess glanced back outside; there wasn't anybody who stood out to her. Examining the fight that Mai and Ty Lee were engaged in, Azula still couldn't really find anyone who might pose a danger. She had already known about the two watertribe siblings - they weren't of any trouble; however, the one boy who stood before Ty Lee didn't even seem like he was fighting. On the contrary, he was talking to her - and she was just standing there, letting him get closer to her.

Ty Lee, just what in the world are you thinking, you idiot?, Azula thought, Fight him! Kill him!

Meanwhile, outside with Izuku and Ty Lee….

The girl carefully walked around the green-haired teen, keeping her guard up all the while; it wasn't that she thought the boy was particularly dangerous, but his gaze just made her uncomfortable.

"Why are you doing this?" Midoriya asked, maintaining a safe distance from her.

"Doing what?" Ty Lee asked, genuinely curious as to what she meant.

"THIS!" he said, gesturing up to the drill behind her, "Don't you know how many lives you'll endanger if you break through the wall."

The look she gave him was one of uneasiness, with a hint of remorse somewhere hidden in between; however, although she seemed rattled by his question, she nevertheless kept her guard up.

As the two continued to challenge each other's gaze, Sokka had long since joined to assist Katara in her battle against Mai. The fight was a bit chaotic and sloppy, but eventually the two siblings began to gain the upper hand. Sokka tossed his boomerang in her direction, but missed her as the assassin rolled to the side in a successful attempt to dodge it; before she could get back up to her feet, however, she felt something cold at wet wrap around her ankle. Katara had finally been able to catch the dark-haired girl with her water whip, and Sokka took advantage of this time by throwing his boomerang once more. Thinking quickly, Mai threw a pain of kunai at the girl, forcing her to dodge and release her water whip. Now free, she was able to move out of the way from Sokka's attack before then kicking the watertribe boy in the side. As the boy knelt down to deal with the pain, Mai momentarily glanced back at the drill, but she soon realized that something was wrong.

"Ty Lee!" she called to her partner, prompting the circus girl to turn away from Izuku, "The drill has stopped."

Midoriya didn't even need to hear anything else; with a smile, he simply knew - Shouto and Bakugo had done their job.

End of Chapter 16

Author's Note: Here's a fairly short chapter. I had to rush closer to the end, but I hoped it turned out okay.