Chapter 24
The ground rumbled as countless stones were ejected out of it, all coming together in a pile at Toph's feet.
"Alright, that should be enough," she decided, seeing that she had what amounted to around 1000 hand-sized stones to work with, all of them with different profiles. Some of them were rough with specifically curved spikes growing out of them to catch the wind more easily.
Others were smoother, perfectly round balls that would have less of an effect, and finally, some were shaped liked arrowheads, spikes pointing in a single direction that would knife through the air with the smallest amount of drag possible.
"Are you sure?" Feng asked incredulously, staring at the enormous pile with shock and intimidation. "Yes, I wanted you to help me with my training session, I didn't say you needed to be ready to go to war."
"And that's your fault," Toph smirked as she crossed her arms, looking unbothered even standing in her pile. "You asked for my help, and I'm giving it to you. Besides, more is always better for training, as that way you can be sure to never get overwhelmed in actual battle."
Grudgingly, Feng nodded as he walked about 10 meters away from Toph, turning back to face her once he was far enough.
"That may be true, but it also means more pain in the meantime." He grumbled under his breath before sighing, moving into a loose stance as he began to spread out his chi, infusing it into the air around him as he let it flow in every direction, traveling across the floor and above it in a half-sphere with a radius of 5 meters.
Once his field of control spread out far enough, Feng let it settle for a moment before he nodded, letting Toph know he was ready.
"Right, first rock incoming, noisiest of the bunch!" Toph shouted as she concentrated, flicking her wrist as the spikiest, least aerodynamic of the stone balls lifted off of its place in the pile, the girl flicking her neck to send it moving in an arc once it was high enough.
Yes, this was a training session mostly geared towards Feng, but that didn't mean she couldn't get some of her own training in as well. Hell, she already had just by forming the rocks. With a little help from Feng, she'd been able to tell what configurations dragged on the air more than others. This meant that in the future she'd be able to shape her attacks in a way that made them spend less energy traveling through the air, which was an aspect of her bending style that she hadn't stumbled upon before.
That was getting ahead of herself though, as right now she had to keep a rock orbiting at a decent speed.
The instant it entered his sphere of air, Feng felt his awareness snap towards it, the fast-moving object clearly traveling a path through it in a way that he could keep track of, even when it left his field of vision.
"Right, slow it down Toph!"
She nodded as she did as told, slowing the rock to a pace barely faster than walking speed, its presence through Feng's field reducing drastically, as did his awareness of its position. It wasn't too bad though, as he could use his eyes to keep track of it in the front half of his sphere, and because of its design, it still dragged a lot of air along with it.
He still gave himself a minute to get a feel for it before nodding at Toph to let her know she should proceed to the next stage, which she did by lifting one of her arms and opening her hand, the 9 other identical orbs to the first lifting themselves out from among their brethren before quickly traveling to join their brother, all 10 of the orbs taking the fast pace the original had started with.
This was a far harder challenge for Feng, as they didn't all take the same height or path as the first, instead traveling at different heights and widths from him. Hell, two of them just plain traveled in the other direction, moving contraclockwise in companions to the clockwise for the other eight.
The only constant between them was the speed they traveled, but because they each covered different amounts of space as they traveled, the orbs didn't even stay in sync. As a result, Feng was having a much harder time focusing on them, as the instant he locked onto the movement of one of them, he lost track of another, even with the predictable paths they were taking.
"Start with two Feng, just start with two…" He muttered to himself, choosing to start with the two highest orbs moving through the air, traveling in opposite paths, yes, but mostly covering the same amount of distance.
The more he focused on these two balls, the easier it become to keep track of them, until he could follow their paths perfectly after a few minutes of practice, a wide grin spreading across his face.
That is, until a hard object took him in the stomach, winding him as he was knocked out of his focused state and onto the ground.
"…Why?!" Feng wheezed as he looked up at the unrepented Toph who was rotating three smooth orbs above her hand, the three spheres following the movements of her fingers.
"You lost focus."
Okay, maybe he had, but still.
"Again...I ask...why?! That's kind of...a little much, Toph. I was...making progress before you...knocked me out of it."
"Yes, you were," Toph agreed, much to his surprise, "but the point of this technique is for you to keep track of the area around you, to keep you aware of the battlefield even when you can't actually see anything. You won't be aware of when people decide to attack, so you need to be able to keep your senses open so as to not be caught aware. It's a lesson I learned long ago from the badger moles."
He hated to admit it (mostly because of his aching stomach), but the girl had a point. Losing track of his sensing area like that did defeat the purpose of using it in the first place.
"Argh, fine," Feng replied, moving back to his feet as he retook his stance, re-establishing his field of control. "Just…don't send in too many, okay? I want to be able to walk to Katara for healing after we finish."
"I make no promises." Toph grinned as the ten orbs that they had been using hovered back in the air, moving towards Feng as if they were going to hit him before they arched out in their paths again, only this time they would sometimes stop and reverse direction.
In his heart, Feng was glad for Toph taking the time to train him like this, as already her experience with seismic sense shined through. But, while she would be an effective teacher, she would never be a kind one.
"Gah!" Feng grunted as a pebble took him in the shoulder, one that had shot straight through his field toward him. He had actually managed to sense that one, but only at the last second when it was too late to move.
Yeah, Feng could already tell that this was going to suck.
…
"Hah, you missed!" Feng taunted as he ducked underneath the approaching rock missile, a pebble-sized stone, even as he rotated on his foot to avoid another.
Somehow, neither knew why, they had changed the way they had been practicing. At first, it had been with those orbs he'd had Toph create, and they made a fair bit of practice with it, Feng swiftly progressing to the smooth spheres even if he still struggled with keeping track of multiple items.
Toph had kept on pelting him with stones, and at one point he had gotten frustrated enough to taunt her about it, which had not been a wise move on his part, as shortly after he had said this a thin blindfold of rock had appeared around his eyes, with Toph claiming it would:
"Help his training!"
Yeah, right. They had both known the real reason was to just give her an excuse to pelt him with rocks, but the jokes on her, because the new training method was working for Feng. Without his visual input for eyesight, he had been forced to double down on his Airbending on the threat of pain, actually expanding the range of his sensing field to fully encompass Toph in his radius, letting him have a longer time to react to her attacks.
She had still yet to realize, as her teeth gnashed in anger.
"Gah! Just stay still!"
"Now why would I do that?" Feng quipped, pausing to tilt his head in question before leaping in the air, performing a full split to hover out of the way of the wave of small stones below him. They both knew Toph could end this little game with no trouble by just controlling the earth like she normally did, but she was prideful enough that that would count as giving up for her.
And Feng knew that.
"It's simply human nature to avoid what hurt's us, you know, kind of like you and tall shelves," Feng taunted, ducking hastily under a particularly fast pebble that would have pelted him in the forehead painfully if he hadn't dodged out of the way.
"You know, you've been pretty good at dodging this past couple of minutes," Toph mused in a purposively non-threatening voice, touching a hand to the ground before punching it, spitting the stone tiles in front of her to hundred of new pebbles, her supply having run pretty low. "Methinks it's time we upgrade the difficulty a little bit."
As she said this, she had already started to spin the pebbles in front of her, the small stones almost vibrating with energy as they followed invisible paths through the air.
"We wouldn't want you to get overconfident and possibly hurt in battle again, now would we?"
That actually stung a little bit. He was never overconfident (denial). What would hurt Feng more though was the countless stones he was about to be assaulted with, as instead of sending them one at a time or all in the same direction as she had before, Toph spread these pebbles out, leaving them hovering from all around Feng at all heights.
This made Feng sweat nervously even as he prepared himself for what was doubtlessly going to come next.
"Blind Training – Stage 2: Omnidirectional sensing," Toph stated in a cocky voice as she cracked her wrist, one of the stones shooting from up and to the left of Feng as he leaned to the side hastily to dodge it.
Only, the next one came soon after, from the bottom right, which made Feng lift his leg up to make it barely miss his family jewels. In fact, he could feel the breeze caused by it ruffling the clothe.
"Hey! Watch it."
Toph just giggled as she continued to attack, sending one stone at a time from any direction which Feng continued to dodge, even if some of them were a close call. The second she started to send multiple though, it was game over for Feng, as stone after stone impacted his body.
First his shoulder, then his rib. His arm, and his chest. His butt, and his wrist. Nothing was spared bar his face and his crotch, and five minutes later, while Feng had a greater feel for actually using his Air Flow Sense in a pseudo-combat-like scenario, he was aching all over far too much to care.
Even when light flooded his vision as the stone covering his eyes fell away, he couldn't do much more than grunt as the triumphant form of Toph stood above him, a twinkle in her eyes and hands on her hips.
"I believe we can score another win up to the Blind Bandit, defeater of Fire Nation Soldiers and Oni's alike."
"Not really meant to be a fight, but sure, if that's what you want to think," Feng groaned even as he grabbed onto her outstretched hand, allowing her to pull him to his feet as he showed her that there were no hard feelings for the damage she had afflicted upon him.
The sudden shifting of weight did have him reaching for his side though, a sharp pain making itself known on the left side of his ribcage. "Could have toned it down a little though, I think you cracked a rib."
A grimace appeared on her lips. "Yeah, sorry about that. I couldn't seem to get a bead on you when I was sticking to just one projectile at a time, which made me frustrated. Which…"
"Caused you to stop holding back and pummel me to the ground, yes."
Frankly, Toph looked embarrassed to Feng, but he chose not to voice his observation aloud, less he finds himself with more than a cracked rib. At least this would only take a healing session or two to be fixed.
"Right, let's go find Katara, I don't what to know what I'll feel like if I wait," Feng decided as he started taking small, gingery steps towards where she normally spent her days in the palace, Toph walking beside him as he did.
"She in her normal spot?"
Toph focused for a second before nodding. "Yep."
"Good," Feng replied, continuing his slow march with the short girl beside him, the pair of them covering the ground at a glacial pace that slowly ate up the distance, a peaceful silence falling between the two of them.
10 minutes of this brought them to the palace walls, the guards opening the doors for them as they were permitted entrance to the luxurious furnishings that they had come to call home this past month, the smell of gently burning incense filling their noses. Yes, Feng could have walked at his normal pace if needed, but he didn't exactly have anything else to do now that he needed to rest, so why suffer a little more pain when it wasn't needed?
"So, while you're here, can I ask you something?" Feng asked, breaking the silence.
Toph blinked as she looked at him, sensing the carefully controlled apprehension going through the man even as she replied.
"Yeah, go ahead. I make no promises to answer though."
"I wouldn't be too worried," Feng snorted, "it's not about you. It's about Aang."
"Twinkletoes? Yeah, what about him?"
Instead of answering straight away, Feng remained quiet as he gazed at the masterfully built interior of the hallway they were walking through. He could only delay for so long, however.
"His Avatar state, when he's in it, do you feel that there's anything…off about it? Something that might have caused past Avatars to not use it if they could?"
Toph almost paused in place at the question, the shock causing her to pause mid-step before she continued moving forward, the pause so small that Feng barely noticed. The fact that he did though wasn't a promising sign.
"I thought that was just me," She muttered quietly, her voice subdued a little as she sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Look, when I got Aang to face me in his fancy-dandy new form, I wasn't really surprised that he beat me. He had too much experience and power for anything else to happen. But when he was using that giant hand of his, the one that would have squashed me and caused a minor earthquake if he had released it, do you know what I sensed from his heartbeat? His feelings on the attack?"
Feng shook his head as he stayed quiet, thinking that this sounded important.
"I felt nothing from him, nothing at all," Toph grunted, gesturing at the air around them listlessly. "No excitement, no joy, not even apprehension at potentially letting that hand of his go. We both know what Aang's like, right? He loves his friends and would stop at nothing to save them, and despite being a monk he loves to brag."
Feng nodded at her points, agreeing with them. Aang indeed did love to brag.
"But in the Avatar State? He had none of that," Toph said in concern. "Yes, he has manual control over it, and I suspect that the real him is in there somewhere, but using the state turns him cold, for lack of a better term. No emotion. Just...cold efficiency."
Feng let his head fall slightly. "That's what I was afraid of," he sighed, feeling a small pit in his heart at having his suspicion confirmed.
"What were you afraid of?"
"That the Avatar state…is a double-edged sword," Feng stated solemnly even as the pair came to a stop in the current hallway they were traveling through, currently out of hearing range of anyone else.
"Think about it, there have been thousands of Avatars at minimum, right? With all of their memories and experiences accessible to Aang when he goes into the Avatar state?"
"There are," Toph nodded thoughtfully. "But that's a good thing, isn't it? It means Aang has access to all of their skills when battling the Fire Nation and will put him on an equal footing when against the Fire Lord."
"Yes, and I'm not saying that it won't. Frankly, Aang needs the Avatar state, as do we, if we actually want to win this war in a short fashion. But the Avatar state is a mysterious thing, with not much known about it, let alone what side effects that may come with it. My theory is that there is simply too much in these memories for Aang to act normally. Who knows what sort of people some of the past Avatars could have been? Just look at the past four."
"The Past four," Toph frowned, trying to think of who Feng was referring to. "That was Roku, Kyoshi…Kovu?"
"Close, Kuruk," Feng smiled at the girl, "and finally, to finish out the past cycle, we have Yanchen. Of these four, only one acted similarly to how Aang does, and that was Avatar Roku, who was a very forgiving individual. Perhaps too forgiving, considering that this allowed Sozin to begin the 100-year war."
"Yeah, if he was a little harder on the man, this whole war might not have even started." Toph agreed.
"Yes, but we're going off-topic. Next on the list is Kuruk, who, while the records are limited, was said to have goofed off in his time as the Avatar, not really adhering to the reasonability expected by the Avatar. Unfortunately, this was a trait Aang shared before he got over it. The last two though, Kyoshi and Yanchen, were of a different breed. Kyoshi lived a long life, a very long life, and accomplished a lot during her time. She was said to be relentless in accomplishing her goals, truly embodying the stubborn nature of Earth as she lived her life, and as a result, she was not a very forgiving individual."
"Right on." Toph grinned as a brief smile appeared on Feng's lips, unable to suppress the innate reaction even as he continued his words.
"Yanchen…Yanchen was the most complex of the four, being that she was a member of the Air nomads and was raised on the same pacifist beliefs Aang was. Unlike Ang though," Feng's face hardened," Yanchen believed in doing whatever was necessary to bring balance to the world, even if that mean compromising her beliefs."
"You mean…" Toph trailed off, her question unasked.
Feng decided being blunt would be the best approach here.
"I mean that she killed a lot of people, Toph. More than any other Avatar in living memories, and these four are only the ones we have decent records on, considering that Yanchen's time was almost 500 years ago. Who knows what some of the other Avatars were like. Yes, they could have been peaceful, but they could also have been ruthless. They could have been cautious, or they could have been dangerously reckless."
Toph's face slowly paled as she realized just what Feng was saying.
"Thousands of lifetimes are knocking around in Aang's noggin, Toph, and he is just a mere 12-year-old boy in the face of millennia. I'm not surprised that Aang doesn't act like his normal self in the Avatar state, but it's something we need to keep an eye on. I wouldn't like it if he went too far, and I especially wouldn't like it if he turned upon us, even if I think that's unlikely."
Toph swallowed nervously at the thought of that happening, the girl fidgeting on the spot. "That would suck. But…what do you want me to do about it?" she asked incredulously. "I may be good, but as Aang showed clearly, I'm not that good!"
"Maybe not," Feng admitted as he looked Toph in the eye, his grey gaze steady. "But I don't expect you to be. We just need to keep an eye on him, and while I believe Sokka would be happy to as well, he isn't exactly as perceptive as you. Particularly for what I really want to watch out for."
"There's something else?!" Toph half yelled, her voice strained.
"Yes, there is." Feng sighed as he suddenly aged a couple of years, reaching up to rub his hair. "While Aang may forget his past lives memories pretty quickly, repeated exposure could have an effect on his personality, especially since it's still developing. If he suddenly starts acting less emotively, less compassionately, I want to know about it, because then we'll know we need to restrict his usage of the Avatar state."
"I…I can do that," Toph decided, feeling a little more confident now that she wouldn't be asked to fight against such a fearsome bender. "But what if the worst comes to light? What if, at the end of this, it's not the Fire Lord who needs to be stopped...but Aang?"
Feng didn't answer as he began to walk again, his lips pursed in thought as Toph forced herself to follow, even if her legs felt wooden.
"If it comes to that," Feng began, purposely not looking at Toph so that she didn't see his hardened visage, "then I'll deal with it myself. Aang may be the better bender, but Roku showed that Avatars are not invincible. They can still be hurt. They can still be killed. After all, they're still human, and just as vulnerable to steel as anyone else."
And Feng, as much as he didn't like to admit it, had the will to see such action through, even if it would haunt him afterward.
…
"Guys. Guys! A missive from the Dai Li!" Aang yelled as he ran into the room, Toph flinching slightly at his presence even as Feng forced himself not to act. It may have been a little reckless on his part to inform the girl of his suspicions like that, but to be brutally honest with himself, he needed her help even if it would taint her view of the boy.
Currently, they were all gathered in the same living area, it being late morning as the sun's light seeped in from the distant windowsills, the teens taking the opportunity to rest from the harsh light of the spring sun.
"What did the missive say?" Sokka asked, wasting no time as he set down his sharpening stone, having only half finished the daily maintenance of his weapons.
"I don't know, I'll check," Aang replied as he fetched out the scroll of paper, opening the seal as he began to read it. Feng felt like facepalming at the action, why would Aang run-in with such urgency if he didn't even know what the message said? For all they knew it could have just been a general update on the invasion plan's progress.
Judging by the frown on Aang's face though, that wasn't the case.
"Apparently, since the successful penetration of the drill, regular messages have been passed between the walls, and the expected check-up of the Outerwall had been silent since its last message four hours ago. Because of Appa, they'd like it if we could go check out what's wrong."
"Really? They've got us doing errands now?" Sokka complained, slumping in his seat.
"Hey now, this could be important Sokka. What if it's the Fire Nation again? We wouldn't want to be caught unaware like the last time." Katara chided the boy, crossing her arms as she frowned at him, the boy shrinking under her gaze.
"Katara's right Sokka, this could be important. And judging by the last time something like this happened, we'll want all hands on deck." Aang decided, looking between the rest of the teens. Toph and Feng just stood up, already ready considering Toph only wore one outfit, and Feng never went anywhere without his fans.
Katara was similarly ready to go as she double-checked how full her water pouched were, having taken to carrying four with her whenever she went, mostly to allow herself to practice with them, but also to ensure she was never left without a way to defend herself.
This meant that Sokka was the only one still sitting, the boy still looking at his companions with faint irritation before he sighed, moving about the room to holster his weapons. "Alright fine, I get the point. Give me five minutes to put on my armor then we can go."
"Good." Aang declared, smiling at how ready they all were to intervene.
…
"Alright, let's get this over with." Sokka sighed as he dismounted from Appa, leading the way for the rest as they walked toward the base of the outer wall. Feng couldn't see anything that looked out of place, there were still the green and gold figures of the Earth Kingdom soldiers walking in regular patterns, and the crammed-in civilians of the Lower Ring didn't look like to be in shock over something bad happening.
Which really begged the question as to why they were here if nothing was wrong.
"Hey guys, is it just me, or is this suspiciously normal despite the lack of contact?" Aang asked, sharing Feng's opinion as he scanned the area. "Because I'm seeing nothing."
"It's not just you." Feng frowned, feeling that something was wrong, but unable to find anything that was. The normal sound of the city's hustle and bustle filled his ears, and there was no scent of bloodshed or fire.
"Yeah…that's enough of that." Toph decided, pushing the group of tweens forward to the section of the wall used as an elevator. "Let's go to the top, see that nothing's there, and then we can go back to training. There's no point in getting paranoid."
Feng disagreed. There was always a point in being paranoid, but he chose to remain quiet regardless as Toph stomped on the earthen platform, causing it to rumble slightly as it began moving upwards with the sound of grinding rock.
Of course, since this was Toph, she didn't exactly move slowly, because as soon as they were about five meters above the ground and out of the way of anything, she allowed her hands to rise, coming out at either side of her as she clenched her hands and pushed them upwards, sending everyone except Toph crashing down to the surface of the platform.
"Hey!? Why are we moving faster?!" Katara yelped in shock, glaring at Toph from her spot on the floor.
"Because it's faster!" Toph cackled, actually windmilling her arms to cause them to move even faster, their platform almost teleporting up the wall with how quickly they were moving. Feng just held on as best as he could, doing his best to keep his eyes open even as he kept track of the others because if one of them fell off, it would be up to Aang or himself to save them.
Mercifully, only a few seconds passed before the platform reversed its acceleration and began slowing down, the lack of force on his body almost making Feng feel like he was floating. Actually…
Feng concentrated as he twitched his hands, causing a small cushion of air to swirl onto existence below him as he was lifted off the platform, floating in mid-air as he righted himself to stand beside the still-grinning Toph.
"Thank you for riding the Toph Transportation Surface. Payment is not necessary, but tips are appreciated." Toph said as they came to a rest at the top of the wall, now a hundred meters above ground level in only a few short seconds.
So that was how she wanted to go about it, Feng thought with amusement as he straightened his clothes. The others were much less amused them him though.
"The hell was that Toph?! You could have got us hurt!" Katara yelled once she made it to her feet, her hair sticking out in every direction. "What would you have done if one of us actually fell off, huh!?"
"Just don't fall off," Toph shrugged, not really seeing anything wrong with what she had done. Clearly, Katara was of a different opinion judging by the nasty scowl she had, but Feng just stepped off of the platform, not letting the ensuing argument bother him.
To be fair, while what Toph had done didn't really bother him, it was a bit much for a non-emergency situation. Not that it would stop him from doing it again, but it was a bit much nonetheless. Doing his best to put such thoughts out of his mind, however, Feng refocused on his surroundings, staring carefully for any signs of strife.
"Where did you come from?" One of the nearby guards asked him, looking between Feng and his friends with suppressed worry, but Feng didn't answer as he stared at the ground. There were a few scuffs and scrapes present that clearly indicated battle, but that wasn't really evidence.
It wasn't that long ago that the drill had happened, so it wasn't a surprise to still see the signs of it. Something that was more suspicious was the guards themselves actually, as they were all staring at Team Avatar with a mixture of shock, concern, or anger depending on where Feng looked, his eyes darting to take in all of it.
"Hey Sokka, would you come here for a minute?" Feng asked, drawing the Water Tribe boy out from where he had been watching the catfight between his sister and Toph, the now muscular boy jogging over to where Feng was standing.
"Yeah?"
"Can you see something off about their expressions?" Feng asked quietly, just loud enough for Sokka to hear him over the sound of the wind. "Shouldn't they be, you know, glad to see us?"
"Yeah," Sokka agreed with a frown as he noted what Feng had said, "they should. If anything, they should be grateful, all of the other Guards I trained with were, and most of them were palace guards and not involved in the battle itself like these ones would have been."
"That was my thought exactly," Feng sighed as he stamped the ground twice, causing Toph's attention to move towards him, pausing her argument with Katara where she had been showing her ability to create supports if any of them had started slipping away on the ascent.
The double stomp was an agreed-upon signal between Toph and himself, one that told her to be watchful of their surroundings. Knowing that his best backup was available, sorry Sokka, Feng confidently walked towards the closest pair of guards, one of which was the one who had asked who they were.
"Hi there," Feng greeted the frowning guard with a fake smile, noting the way his hand clenched around his spear. "We were sent here to ask about the lack of communication from the outer wall. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?"
"Ahhh…" The guard shared a panicked look with her fellow guard, both of them looking at the other for some kind of solution. "We…forgot to?"
Man, that was just about the worst excuse Feng had ever heard. No need to give the game away yet though, even as he readied himself for action. "Mm-hmm, okay, that sounds reasonable."
"Really?" The same guards asked hopefully, not able to believe his excuse had worked.
"No." Feng cut him down at the knees, making the guard sulk a little as Feng stared at their faces, and then their hands. Specifically, the inside of their hands, which were a different color than the darker brown shade that was the standard for the Earth kingdom.
A different color…could that mean that they were wearing makeup?
Following the train of thought, his gaze shifted back up the still-sulking guard's face, carefully noting every detail from the not quite evenly blended skin tone to the rougher skin patches on their cheeks, like where an enclosed helmet would have left marks.
What was most suspicious, however, were the guard's eyes. They were a pale light brown, almost amber in coloration, and the other guard's eyes weren't any different. Which was funny, considering that those of Earth Kingdom descent primarily had either green or dark brown eyes, very rarely possessing anything else.
In fact, Feng could only ever remember seeing eyes with that particular shade of amber in the Fire Nation colonies, where they were more genetically diverse. Primarily because they were…
"Of course, this had to happen now." Feng groaned, bringing his fingers up to his nose to pinch it, trying to stifle his annoyance at the situation.
"It did? What happened Feng?" Sokka asked curiously, not quite putting it together at the two guards in front of them, and everyone else in eyesight really started to shift uneasily.
"We've been had. Take a look at these two's eye color and tell me if it seems normal to you."
"Their eye colors? What's wrong with them?" Sokka asked obliviously before he did as Feng said and actually looked, making a noise of understanding as he put it together, groaning in quite a similar fashion to Feng.
"You see?"
"Yep."
The two guards were properly unnerved now.
"What's wrong with our eyes? I happen to think they are quite normal."
"Yeah, almost beautiful in fact. Have you seen how Jin's eyes shine in the light?" The other agreed, receiving weird looks from Feng and Sokka even as the now-named Jin smiled at the compliment.
"Right…I'm just going to ignore that. I'll give you guys some credit, seeing as you did take over the wall without anyone else being aware, but do you feel like surrendering? Because this is just not a fight you will win."
"Surrender, why would we do that?" The second guard, Feng decided to refer to him as Bob, asked, frowning at the pair of teens even if Feng towered over him.
"Hard way it is then." Feng shrugged, winding his arm around his head before thrusting it palm first at the pairs chests, a swirling blast of wind leaving his hand to send them flying backward before they crumbled to the ground, rolling over the earth before they slammed into the edge of the wall, the pair groaning in pain.
"They know! Attack, they can't beat all of us!" One of the close yet still far guards yelled, hefting his spear upwards as he charged toward Feng and Sokka. Sokka took a grounded stance to ready himself while Feng just stood there, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Hey, what's the big idea?! Why'd you attack them!?" Toph yelled as she moved closer to the duo, Katara and Aang following with similar surprise and curiosity.
"Because we were right to be wary, these aren't Earth Kingdom soldiers, their Fire Nation," Sokka informed them.
"Raarrgghhh!" One particularly enthusiastic guard yelled as he charged forward, his sword outstretched above his head as he sought to slice Feng down at the shoulder, only for Feng to duck beneath the blow with an outstretched foot, the soldier tripping over it as he collapsed to the floor, looking confused for a second before Feng slammed a foot into his head, knocking him out.
"Although none of them seem to be Fire benders, which seems a little short-sided."
"Maybe because they took all of them with them?" Toph proposed even as she send a rolling wave out from her position beside Feng, one that filled the entire width of the walls as all of the guards were sent upwards into the air, crashing down painfully in their armor.
And they were the lucky ones, as a few were sent flying over the edges of the wall.
"Someone should probably catch them," Feng mused while making no motion to do so.
"On it!" Aang yelled with a nod as he dived over the edge with the majority of the falling men, while Katara moved over to the other edge and proceeded to send out two water whips to catch the falling men on her side.
"Seriously, is this it?" Toph asked with derision, making no move to help Sokka as he duked it out with all of the soldiers in front of them. Unlike a properly trained army, they were only coming one or two at a time at the boy, and as a result of his superior skill, he was easily knowing them down and out of the fight.
"To be fair to them, you've been sparing solely against Aang, myself, and Katara these past weeks, and I wouldn't exactly call us weak. Aang in particular."
"True," Toph nodded as Sokka accidentally brought the ball of his club into the crotch of one of his enemies, the fire nation soldier's very soul leaving his body as he bonelessly collapsed to the ground.
"Sorry!" Sokka apologized even as he moved on to the next soldier, paying no mind to the collapsed form of his brutalized foe.
"Doesn't mean it's not disappointing."
"True," Feng agreed with a sigh as he walked over to help Sokka. He was starting to look tired, and considering the quality of the soldiers left behind, they'd probably have to deal with the more skilled ones shortly somewhere else in the city.
"Take a break big guy, I got this," Feng said to the heavily breathing Water Tribe Boy as he finished knocking down a group of three.
"You sure? I can still fight."
Just after he said this, Feng sprung into action as he leaped forward, soaring over the attacks of two of the soldiers as he brought their heads together, not even using his bending as he knocked them out before folding over backward under the sword of another guard, springing off the ground to catch his ambitious attacker in the face with his feet.
"Yeah, I'm sure," Feng decided as he brought out his fans. To be truthful, it would be nice to fight as a non-bender again, because as fun as it was to send his enemies flying, there was just something satisfying about using physical force.
Besides, the fight didn't exactly last long as only thirty minutes later the group of teens was left with the groaning and passed-out forms of almost five hundred Fire Nation soldiers. They'd kind of made a game of it at the end, with Toph pulling out in front due to her wave attack.
…
Meanwhile, Azula could be found standing with the rest of her forces, all 1000 of them as they stood before a wall that the Fire Nation had never actually made it to, the Middle Ring Wall towering above them.
"Princess, they have no idea we're here. Do you want to proceed with phase 2?"
"Yes, yes I would Corporal," Azula smirked, her eyes glinting darkly as she stared upwards beneath her circular metal hat, already imagining her imminent victory.
AN: Glad I finally got this chapter out. Exams combined with getting sick is a vicious combo, let me tell you. Anyway, thanks for reading if you made it this far.
Ervin.