Chapter 7: The Terra Team
Accelerator shielded his eyes with his hand as he slowly emerged from within the drill; he was squinting in an uncomfortable attempt to adjust to the brightness of the outside environment. Rough dirt crunched beneath his shoes as he firmly planted his feet on the ground. The expansive stretch of the blue sky was a welcomed sight when compared to the dim and grey hues of the metallic drill; thin clouds curved above the horizon, and the walls of Ba Sing Se seemed to cut the rest of the sky off from view.
"Alright, what now?" Mai sighed, not even trying to hide her boredom.
"I think we're supposed to fight those guys," Ty Lee said as she pointed towards a small group of uniformed figures coming their way.
The group consisted of men who wore dark green suits with yellow trim; round hats with flat tops were positioned on their heads and seemed to be designed with the same color scheme as the uniforms. The members of the team were running in well-organized formations as they quickly closed in on the three teens; it was obvious that they were trained, but that didn't really matter to Accelerator.
"Ha! Here they come!" Ty Lee said as she got into her attack pose.
Like her smiling friend, Mai also decided to initiate her assault as she pulled out sharp daggers from the inside of her robe. The team of earthbending warriors came to a sudden halt about 20 feet away from the three of them, and (almost as if on command) began to send rocks in the direction of the teens. Ty Lee and Mai were the first to react, swiftly dodging and ducking all of the flying pieces of rocks and debris that darted through the air. Accelerator didn't move and instead raised his hand up in front of him with a look of minor annoyance. Many of the attacks darted past the young esper, missing him by several inches, but the rocks that managed to make contact with his body seemed to break apart upon hitting an invisible barrier.
Meanwhile, Mai and Ty Lee were busy initiating a frontal assault; after getting through the sea of earthbender attacks, the two girls finally got within striking distance of the guards. Deciding that they needed to split up, both warriors gave each other knowing glances before they dispersed. Ty Lee was the first to attack, delivering a series of fast yet powerful jabs to various pressure points on the guards' bodies. Her fury of punches caused many of the earthbenders to become limp as they weakly fell to the floor. Mai, on the other hand, used a slightly different tactic when dealing with the rest of the guards. Before any of them had time to react, the black-haired assassin launched several of her daggers at their legs, stabbing them directly in the thighs or the tendons. While many of them fell to their knees in pain, Mai took that as an opportunity to attack each of them individually, knocking them all out with kicks to their temples.
Even though he looked incredibly bored, Accelerator was actually quite impressed by how Mai and Ty Lee handled the guards(but he was never going to tell them that). He watched as the two of them approached him, returning back to their original spots.
"Thanks for the help," Mai said sarcastically as she gave Accelerator an irritated glare.
"Oh, come on. What are you mad for? You won, right?" he said with a cheeky grin that seemed to infuriate Mai even more.
"For some reason, I thought those guys would be harder to fight," Ty Lee stated, although it sounded more like an observation.
Just then, the three teens turned to see several more groups of earthbenders heading for them once again; this time, the number of enemies were nearly triple that of the previous amount, and they didn't look very happy.
"You just had to jinx it, didn't you?" Mai noted with a deadpanned face, causing Ty Lee to give off a sheepish grin.
The two girls got into their fighting stances once again, expecting an onslaught of earthbender attacks and assaults. However, before either of them could jump into action, Accelerator silently walked in front of them, causing both female warriors to give each other confused looks.
"ummm, Accelerator…..what are you doing?" Ty Lee asked with an innocent voice.
"You guys already had your fun, remember? Now, it's MY turn," the esper said with an evil grin.
Slowly, the teenage boy removed his hands from his pockets, letting them hang by his sides; for a few moments, his body remained still as the platoon of earthbenders continued to approach. Then, without warning, he curled his right hand into a fist and reeled his body back, rotating his torso. The next few seconds became a blur as Accelerator lurched his body forward, slamming his fist into the rock-hard ground; the earth beneath him began to shatter and break apart, splitting the very floor into a distinct line and opening it up. Some of the approaching earthbenders were quick enough to dodge the attack, but many of the other warriors screamed in terror as they fell down into the dark chasm. Their voices continued to echo as they fell deeper into the abyss until even their shouts disappeared into the rift.
The remaining earthbenders watched with stunned faces as the ground itself came back together, forever trapping the fallen men beneath the surface. There was a long silence that took control of the surviving earthbenders' bodies, many of them refusing to move out of fear; Accelerator took his time, walking towards the remaining guards until he practically stood over them. They looked up at him, doing their best to hide the sheer terror that they felt at that very moment, but every single ounce of bravery that they might've had was quickly sucked out of them once they looked into his eyes. Two red orbs stared back at them - both were the color of blood, and the way that he looked down at them made them feel as if they were suffocating. Their breathing rapidly increased as they watched the pale boy lean down in front of them, his eyes never once losing their intensity.
"Do you wish to live?" he suddenly asked.
It took a while for the meaning of the question to sink in, but the guards eventually started to desperately nod their heads, hoping that the question wasn't just asked to mess with them.
Accelerator watched the men nod in response, and he smiled.
"Good. Then I need you to do one thing for me..."
The way that he spoke was nerve-wracking to say the least, but the earthbenders waited for him to continue as they listened while holding their breaths.
"...bring me the avatar."
The faces of the men twitched with a mixture of terror and confusion, but Accelerator knew that they would do what he said – after all, fear and loyalty were both reactions to power.
The men nodded their heads again, although this time it was out of some twisted sense of appreciation – he hadn't killed them, but he most assuredly could have. All of the remaining men turned around and ran, some of them stumbling as they desperately followed behind their equally afraid comrades.
Accelerator watched as the earthbenders scrambled away from him until they were merely small dots that neared the base of the wall. Turning back around, the esper let out a sigh and scratched the back of his head as he rejoined the other two female teens. He stopped once he saw the looks on both of their faces; Ty Lee held an expression of innocent wonder while Mai simply wore a look of absolute astonishment.
"Fix your faces," he said, hoping a bit of humor would stabilize them.
Ty Lee shook her head to regain her composure and Mai blinked a couple of times before her face returned to her trademark glare.
"Whatever," the gothic assassin immediately replied as she crossed her arms, "let's just go back inside. It's too hot out here anyway."
"You two can go, but I'm staying out here," Accelerator responded with a side glance.
"…fine," Mai said after a few seconds before she and Ty Lee walked back to enter the drill, leaving the esper standing out in the dry heat with the look of anticipation.
Later, on the wall of Ba Sing Se…
Aang stared out at the massive drill that mechanically moved across the ground; he, Katara, Sokka, Toph, and Momo had just recently reached the walls of Ba Sing Se. It had only been a few minutes, but they were eventually greeted with the sight of a Fire Nation attack. After realizing that the earthbenders' needed help to stop the drill, Aang and his friends offered their services to General Sung in the hopes that they could stop this sudden threat.
At the moment, Sokka just came up with a plan to destroy the machine – take it down from the inside. It was a brilliant plan, something that was only made possible by witnessing the way that Ty Lee had taken down a few members of the Terra team. Only a portion of the earthbenders had made it back safely, but almost all of them were seriously wounded. One of the men who was still conscious told them that they had been taken down by two girls(Mai and Ty Lee) but that there was another person who didn't even fight. He said it was a boy, possibly a teenager, who had white hair and red eyes. Aang already knew of Mai and Ty Lee, the group had fought them a while back, but who was this new guy? Had Azula added an extra member to her team?
Aang thought about this as he stood at the edge of the wall and stared down at the continuously moving drill. Suddenly, he heard some commotion and turned to see an earthbending soldier, a member of the Terra team by the look of his uniform, who was shouting to the general at the top of his lungs. Behind the man stood at least four other members who all seemed to be on his side.
"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! WHERE IS THE AVATAR? WE HAVE TO TALK TO HIM!" the man screamed as he practically grabbed General Sung by the shoulders.
Aang glanced back at the rest of his group; Katara and Sokka both looked on with worry while Toph merely listened in silence.
The man was hysterical, sweat soaked his forehead and his body trembled with…..fear?
General Sung weakened in the man's grasp and nervously pointed in Aang's direction without saying a word; the man looked up in the group's direction and locked his eyes directly on Aang. The young airbender flinched upon realizing that he was the sudden center of attention, and he watched as the man along with the other four soldiers made their way to him.
"Are you the avatar?" the man demanded, although the volume in his voice did little to hide his vocal quivers.
"Y-yes," the bald boy replied hesitantly.
The man roughly grabbed his arm with a firm grip, "you have to come with me!" he shouted.
"What? Why?" Aang asked, even more confused now than he was before.
"There's no time to explain. Hurry!" he stated once again, this time attempting to pull on the airbender's arm.
"Hey, wait a minute. What's going on?" Katara questioned as she walked up next to Aang. She gave the man a warning look, holding her hand beside a small water container if she needed to attack.
The man mustn't've known that she was a waterbender because he did not release his grip on Aang's arm.
"Hey! Cut it out, let me go!" Aang pleaded as he tried to pry himself from the man's stern grip, "I don't want to hurt you," he said as he continued to struggle.
"I'm sorry, but I can't let you go. If I don't take you to him, he'll kill me!...he'll kill all of us!" the man said with terror in his eyes.
"What? 'Kill you'? Calm down, who are you talking about?" Aang said, becoming somewhat concerned for the men in front of him.
The man visually stiffened up at the question, his eyes widening to the point of grotesqueness.
"…the boy with the white hair," he muttered.
End of Chapter 7
A/N: Hey guys, I have just a few things to get out of the way. First, I realized that I uploaded an incomplete version of the last chapter, but have no fear because I've already corrected that. Second….I don't really have a second thing to say, I just wanted to pretend that everything I say is important. Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter; if you did, PLEASE leave a comment. I. Need. Comments.