Chapter 10: Infiltrators in the drill
Walking back into the giant hull of the drill, with the unconscious girl in his arms, the white-haired esper roamed the halls looking for somewhere to place her; the machine was so large and expansive, he was bound to find some sort of medic bay – after all, it was well known that this expedition may lead to possible injuries. Approaching a man who he saw working on one of the pipes, Accelerator called out to him over the constant hissing of the hydraulics. The man was wearing protective goggles and proceeded to remove them upon hearing Accelerator call to him; the majority of his face was darkened by the constant contact with soot and steam except for two circles around his eyes where the goggles used to be.
"Hey, you know where the medic bay is?" Accelerator questioned.
The man glanced down at the unconscious girl in his arms before looking back up at the boy's neutral face.
"Uhhh, it's further down the hall; make a left and it should be on the left side," he hesitantly informed as he weakly pointed behind himself.
Without saying a word, Accelerator silently walked past the confused mechanic and made his way down the corridor, turning left as he had been told. Taking constant, deliberate steps, the teen finally reached a door with the words 'Emergency Medical Room' imprinted into the metal. Kicking the door open as he held Toph in his arms, Accelerator wandered into a moderately sized room that had beds equally spaced from each other in rows; the beds were made of thin mattresses and they were all adorned with white sheets. A man, possibly the doctor, sat quietly at a desk, isolated from the rest of the beds in the room – he looked up as soon as Accelerator kicked open the door to enter. He continued to watch as the white-haired boy set the girl down comfortably onto the nearest bed.
"May I ask what's going on?" the man said as he gently removed a pair of glasses from his brow.
"This girl may know the whereabouts of the avatar. I need her alive so that I can interrogate her for more information," Accelerator lied – although it wasn't a total lie; he definitely planned on asking her about the avatar, but the usage of the word 'interrogate' was strictly for gaining the man's trust.
The doctor, who wore a relatively long gown-like robe, walked over to the unconscious girl and examined the state of her; he let out a low, thoughtful 'hmmm' as he inspected the beaten body.
"How long ago was she conscious?" he asked.
"Approximately 20 minutes ago," the boy curtly answered.
"hmmm," the doctor murmured before returning his gaze back on the young earth bender.
Letting out a reserved sigh, he walked over to a metallic cabinet and opened the metal doors to reveal a small space containing various forms of medicine.
"The girl will be fine, or, rather, I should say that she will live," the doctor said as he grabbed a small box containing a number of tools and containers, "I may be able to repair most of the external damage, but her ribs will take time to heal."
As the man began to shuffle through the various medicines, Accelerator stared down at Toph's unconscious face; a light bruise was evident on her cheek already, and a small cut formed across her chin. Suddenly, as if to break the silence, the entire room began to rumble and shake; confused, Accelerator glanced over at the doctor, who seemed to be just as confused as he was. Just then, a voice echoed through the announcement system – it was War Minister Qin, although the volume seemed to be slightly disconcerting.
"Attention all attendants," the voice began, "many of you may have just experienced a minor shake in your relative area. Worry not, it is merely due to the drill's impact with the wall. Everything is under control."
With that, the voice suddenly hung up, and Accelerator gave a short sigh as he looked over at the doctor.
"How long until she's awake?" he asked.
"Hard to tell at this point. It could range from a couple of hours to several days," he stated as he continued to pick out containers of medicine, "In any case, there's not much more you can do here. You can resume your station, and I will contact you when needed."
Not wanting to argue, Accelerator merely shrugged his shoulders as he proceeded to exit the room, making sure to close the room behind him. As he walked down the hall way in search of his way back to the command center, he questioned his motives regarding saving the blind girl. It was very strange behavior on his part, and he was aware of it, but it was quite concerning to him that he couldn't quite identify his reasons for doing so. Accelerator stared down at the metallic floor in thought as he slowly walked through the corridor; he looked up as soon as he heard the running sound of footsteps. There, several yards from him, ran Azula who was closely followed by Mai and Ty Lee.
"You. Follow," the fire nation queen assertively ordered.
"Why? What is it?" Accelerator questioned as he trailed behind the three girls.
"Someone's attempting to sabotage the drill, and I'm certain that it's the avatar," she quickly informed.
An excited grin suddenly formed on the young esper's lips, "really?" he asked, intrigued by the notion that the avatar was so nearby.
"I thought you'd like that," Azula commented with a light chuckle as all four of them sprinted down the hall.
"Where is he?" Accelerator asked.
"He's in the central section of the drill – he's cutting the braces to stop the machine from moving."
"I see. I'll meet you there," he said as he suddenly took off, disappearing from next to the girls and zooming down the corridor, out of sight.
As he raced through the hallway, the blurred images of the walls passed by him at remarkable speeds; after making several sharp turns and avoiding a few men who were in the halls, Accelerator eventually came to a thin door at the end of a hallway and effortlessly stopped in front of it. The door looked quite standard, lacking any differing features that would identify it as relatively important, accept for a wheel like mechanism that acted as the door handle. Gripping both sides of the wheel, Accelerator turned it counter-clockwise, making sure to fully unlock it. A low-pitched clicking sound came from the bolt, signifying that it was now unlocked; grinning eagerly, the esper slowly opened the door. The door led out onto a bridge-like walkway that was hung by thick metal wire over a wide open area; the space bellow him was incredible far down, but Accelerator ignored it. He soon realized that there had been faint voices that were echoing throughout the area; following the sound, he looked over the walkway and saw a group of about three people who were talking with one another.
A smile returned to his face; he recognized all of the three individuals from the profiles that he read. One of them was dark-skinned had a ponytail and was equipped with a boomerang on his side – it had to be 'Sokka'. The second was a girl, and she seemed to mirror the first boy in terms of skin tone and hair color – Katara. Which meant that the third one was…
The avatar.
Reacting quickly upon realizing the identity of who was below him, the teenage esper jumped from off of the hanging walkway and began to fall down, keeping his eyes on the group as he went. Landing down on the surface a few feet from them with a loud 'thud', Accelerator grinned happily at the surprised faces of the group.
"Hey there," he said.
"Who the heck are you?" Sokka screamed, "and where did you come from?" he asked, looking up at where Accelerator had jumped from.
"It doesn't matter, Sokka," Katara stated as she slowly reached for the water container at her side, "our cover's been blown."
Taking a closer look at the esper, Aang's eyes suddenly widened as he observed the white hair that adorned the teen's head.
"the boy with the white hair," he whispered to himself.
"So, you're the notorious 'avatar Aang' I've heard so much about," Accelerator commented as he focuses his attention on the bald boy.
"I hear you're powerful," he said as he slowly began to approach the group, "I'd like to see just how powerful you are first hand."
"Not today, you won't!" Katara yelled as she launched a water whip at the esper.
The attack seemed to be blocked by an invisible force as small pellets of water fell from Katara's whip. The stunned faces of the group said it all – there was no way they were going to beat him. Accelerator's approach continued, causing the three teens to simultaneously back away from him.
"Why are you doing this?" Aang suddenly blurted out.
"huh?" Accelerator said in a confused tone.
"I said 'why are you doing this?' Don't you know how many people are going to die if you do this?" he said.
Accelerator's eyebrows slightly lifted at Aang's attempt at democracy.
"So? Why should I care?" he questioned.
"There are innocent people behind that wall," the airbender continued to implore, "they don't deserve this. If you're doing all of this just to get at me, then I'll give myself up."
Accelerator slightly tilted his head upon hearing the avatar's words, "you're not gonna fight me, huh? You're just gonna give up?" he asked.
Aang silently shook his head, "if that's what it takes to keep you from hurting innocent people, then 'yes', I give up."
Accelerator crossed his arms in front of him in thought as he starred at the airbender in front of him. The boy was definitely brave, but such qualities were unimportant to the esper at this particular moment; the entire reason he went on this expedition was to fight the famed 'Avatar', but if he was unwilling to fight then this whole thing was pointless. Unless, of course, he could force the boy to fight; yes, that might actually work. It would be even better if he could force Aang into the avatar state – oooh, how interesting that would be.
"Sorry, I can't accept you giving up, unless you're doing it while screaming!" Accelerator yelled as he rushed the group of three.
Aang was the first one to react, thrusting his arms foreword to cause an immense rush of wind headed for the esper. Easily dodging the attack by stepping to the side, Accelerator continued to push his attack until he was directly in front of a surprised Aang; he lifted his hand up in preparation of an attack, but the young airbender swiftly moved out of the way, just in time for Accelerator's attack to strike a nearby metal beam.
"tch. You're a fast one," Accelerator noted as he watched the airbender retreat to the exit with his two friends. Before they could quite get to the door, however, a stream of fire cut them off from the exit; glancing up at the source of the attack, the three kids gasped upon seeing Azula atop a ledge smiling down at them. Mai and Ty Lee stood behind her.
"Wow, Azula, you were right – it IS the avatar. And friends," Ty Lee said, although the end of the statement held some flirtatious tone to it as she winked at Sokka.
"Hey," the water tribe boy meekly greeted as he gave her a gentle wave.
"Took you long enough to get here," Accelerator said with a grin.
"I suppose it wasn't long enough," the princess sighed, "I thought you would've already defeated the avatar and had his friends on their knees by now."
"What can I say, I'm a slow worker," he retorted with shrugged shoulders.
"you won't get away with this," Aang angrily muttered.
"Oh, please," Azula said as she rolled her eyes, "what can you do to stop us? I've read your file, you barely have a grasp of three of the elements, let alone all four. There's no way you have a chance of defeating us."
Accelerator slowly blinked upon hearing the words of the fire nation princess. None of the files he was given ever revealed anything about the avatar only being able to use two of the elements. The esper remained silent, however, as Azula finished her rant, but strange thoughts began to swirl around in his head as he stared up at the fire nation princess. Why would she lie to him about the avatar's abilities?
He wasn't given much time to consider the answer when Aang suddenly sent a burst of concentrated wind at the three girls on the ledge; quickly reacting to the attack, all three of them jumped off of the platform, successfully dodging the wind currents. Upon landing, Azula glanced at where the avatar was only to find that all three of the teens had fled the room.
Gritting her teeth in slight anger, Azula pointed her finger in the direction of the avatar's escape, "Mai, Ty Lee – you two go after the water tribe girl and her weakling brother!"
Nodding in understanding at her orders, the two girls sprinted out the door in pursuit of the fleeing targets.
Azula turned her head back to face Accelerator as she spoke, "You and I shall find the avatar."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," the esper said as he absentmindedly scratched the back of his head, "but first, I would like to know something."
The fire princess let out a sigh of annoyance, "what? What is it?" she questioned.
Almost as soon as she finished her sentence, Azula felt a strong hand aggressively grasp her neck and shove her into a nearby wall; her body was being held up by a single arm and she stared back at the esper in utter surprise.
"I wanna know why the FUCK you thought you could lie to me and get away with it," Accelerator growled with an infuriated grimace on his face.
Azula desperately scratched at his wrist in an effort to release his hold on her, but instead his grip began to tighten.
"None of the files you gave me ever said that the avatar didn't have full control of his powers. You knew, didn't you? You knew that if I was aware of the avatar's limitations, I wouldn't fight him seriously. So you decided to trick me into believing that he was a worthwhile challenge by altering the files. I see right through you – your goal the whole time wasn't to provide me with a challenge, it was to control me."
Azula's eyes became much more narrowed the more Accelerator spoke, and she eventually stopped scratching at his wrist; letting her hands fall to her sides, the Fire Nation princess spoke with a forced grin despite the weight of his hand on her throat.
"…and you fell for it," she whispered.
Accelerator's blood-red eyes looked up into the defiance of her golden orbs as the two of them stared back at one another in silence.
End of Chapter 10
Author's Note: Long time, no see, everyone! The time has come for me to grace you with another two chapters before I retreat back into my cave for another year or so – you're welcome. In all honesty, it's been so long since I've written for this story, so I forgot everything I was planning to do for it. I think I'm just gonna wing it. Anyway, if you liked the chapter, please leave a comment, and I'll do my best not to get offended by it.