Chapter 11: Pursuit
Accelerator's angry grimace slowly turned into a passive glare and then into a small grin the more he looked at the Fire Nation princess. The more he thought about it, the more he became impressed by Azula's ingenuity; she knew that she couldn't use force to get him to cooperate, so she went with the next best thing – manipulation.
"I have to admit, you are quite an interesting person," Accelerator said as he intently looked over Azula's face. She had kept up her defiant act, glaring at him the whole time as he spoke.
Suddenly releasing her, Accelerator watched as the black-haired girl fell to the floor with a thud, holding her throat as she desperately gasped and coughed for air.
"This is a warning," the white-haired esper said as he stared down at the princess, "don't EVER think you can control me again. If you can manage that much, I'm sure we'll get along just fine."
"Now come on," he said as he headed for the door, "you wouldn't want the avatar to get away, would you?"
Azula growled internally at his words and glared at him as he approached the door; gently rubbing her throat in an effort to soothe the pain, the female fire bender slowly stood up from the cold metallic ground and worked to regain her composure. Following right behind the esper, Azula kept her eyes on him as the two of them hurried down the corridor; a man down the hall looked up at them, the tools that he carried signaled to Accelerator that he was most likely an engineer.
"Yo, did you see a bald kind come down this way?" the esper questioned unenthusiastically.
Without speaking, the man nodded and proceeded to point further down the hallway towards a flight of stairs that were positioned at the end of the corridor.
"He's heading for the upper exit - it leads to the top of the drill," Azula observed, seemingly ignoring what happened mere moments ago.
Accelerator stared on in thought; what purpose would he have to go to the top of the drill? Was he thinking of escaping? No, that's not it – he was so desperate to help the people beyond the wall, he wouldn't simply leave.
"He's planning something," the esper said as he began to walk down the hall to the stairs, "he wouldn't just escape without further trying to stop the drill."
"How do you know?" Azula questioned.
"I've met people just like him before; these 'heroes' will do their utmost to defeat those who they consider 'evil', even going so far as to sacrifice themselves in some self-righteous manner. It's disgusting."
Azula said nothing, but she gave the stoic esper a strange look as the two of them finally reached the stairs and worked their way up the steps. Reaching a platform that lead to a small ladder, the two teens saw a metal hatch on the ceiling that had been fully opened.
"I guess he exited through here," Accelerator stated.
"My, how 'observant' you are," Azula stressed sarcastically as she rolled her eyes and headed for the ladder.
Grabbing a hold of each rung individually, the Fire Nation princess climbed up through the open hatch and emerged out from the interior of the drill. The hot, dry air bit at her pale skin as she confidently rose from the walls of the metallic machine; almost immediately, she spotted the avatar, he stood atop the length of the drill closer to the perimeter of the wall. He seemed to be using a strip of water as a saw, cutting into the hull of the drill; Azula was unaware of what the boy was trying to accomplish, but she didn't waste any time in going in for the attack. She darted toward the boy, small flames of blue fire flickered in her hands as she approached her target; pointing two of her fingers in the air bender's direction, Azula shot out a blue ball of fire that moved swiftly through the air. The avatar, however, was alerted to the oncoming attack and reacted quickly to it, creating a wind barrier to disperse the flames upon impact.
Accelerator reached the top of the ladder just in time to see the two warriors about to engage in battle. The esper had to admit, because he hadn't really seen the avatar's skills in action, he was quite excited to witness the full extent of Aang's abilities. Standing up fully after emerging from the drill, Accelerator placed his hands in his pockets as he proceeded to watch the battle unfold.
Meanwhile, back in the Emergency Medical Room…
Toph lay motionless on the thin mattress, the cuts and bruises that she received from her encounter with Accelerator had now been wrapped in thick strips of cloth to stop the bleeding. Certain areas of her skin had been cleaned to keep the injuries from becoming infected, and the heavy clothes she once wore had now been replaced by a white shirt and pants that worked to regulate her body temperature. Her body slowly began to become more conscious as her hands suddenly twitched and her eyes gradually opened; almost immediately, the young earth bender knew she was in an unfamiliar place – the room smelled of medical supplies and chemicals. Slightly groaning as she attempted to sit up, a sudden breath escaped her lips as a shot of pain emanated from her side. Feeling her tissue for where the pain was coming from, she was surprised to rest her fingers upon a cotton strip that had been wrapped around her entire torso.
"Some of your ribs were broken," said a voice from somewhere in the room, "I suggest you not tamper with those strips, or else you might slow down the healing process."
Now ignoring the pain, Toph's main concern became the identity of the person who spoke.
"Who are you?" she asked, allowing her senses to locate the source of the voice.
"I'm just a humble doctor," the voice said as it stood up from a chair, "you know, you took quite the beating. I'm surprised you woke up as soon as you did. That kid really did a number on you?"
"Kid?" Toph questioned before the memories of her battle with the white-haired boy soon flooded back into her mind.
"Damn!" she suddenly cursed as she tried to move her body off of the bed.
She suddenly stopped as she felt the grip of metal shackles around her wrists; the coldness of the metal practically burned as it pressed against her skin.
"I must apologize for such primitive methods of restraint, but ensuring your presence here is of utmost priority." The voice spoke as it neared Toph's bed, the pounding of footsteps on the metal ground alerted her ears.
"Because you were sleeping, I had no need to utilize any sedatives; however, now things have changed," the man calmly said as seemed to search a nearby container for something.
"Now that you are fully awake, I'm afraid that the introduction of sedatives is required," he stated.
The sound of him rummaging around in the container had stopped, but this filled Toph with even more worry; whatever he was looking for, he had found, and this couldn't be good for her. The footsteps resumed their pace, slowly taking their time as they approached the restrained earth bender.
"What are you going to do to me?" Toph questioned, struggling to hide the nervousness in her voice.
This time the voice refused to reply, and the footsteps stopped directly next to the bed. Suddenly, Toph felt a hand grip her wrist and her eyes widened in protest.
"No! Wait-"
Before she could finish, there was a loud crash along with the man grunting out in pain as he fell to the ground.
"Phew! That was close. Way to take him down, Katara!" yelled a young, male voice.
"Katara? Sokka!" Toph screamed, thankful that they had shown up.
"Toph, how did you get here?" Katara questioned as she glanced at the shackles that adorned the earth bender's wrists, "I thought you were still outside."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll fill you in once you get me out of here," Toph yelled.
Without any hesitation, Katara looked over at a nearby sink and began to bend the water out from the spout; warping the liquid into a thin shape, she commanded the water to slice into the metal braces, freeing Toph from its capture. Rubbing her wrists upon being released, Toph stood up from the uncomfortable embrace of the thin bed and rose to her feet.
"Do you see my clothes?" she asked them.
"Yeah, there over here," Katara said as she grabbed the folded clothes from an unoccupied bed and handed them to Toph.
"We have to hurry and get out of here," Sokka commanded, "our cover was blown; we had to split up from Aang, and now I'm pretty sure we're being followed by Azula's goons. Come on!"
Acting fast, the water tribe boy grabbed a hold of the blind girl's hand and led her out of the room and down the hall, followed closely by Katara. The three of them came to a small hatch on the ground at the end of the hallway; Sokka grunted as he forced it open as starred down into it. A river of slushy liquid flowed through a large pipe that led further down into the drill.
"Gross, what is that?" Katara questioned as she stared at the chunky pieces of rock that decorated the substance.
"Slurry," Sokka quickly answered, "it's pretty much water and rock mixed together, and it's our way out.
"Hey, you guy might want to hurry this up because I hear some people headed our way," Toph said as she pointed down the corridor.
Katara and Sokka followed her finger only to see Mai and Ty Lee headed directly for them.
"Ok, time to go," Sokka yelled as he pulled Toph and Katara with him into the hole.
Falling into the liquid and immediately being pushed along by the current, the three teens had to hold their breaths as they followed the flow of the slushy substance.
Mai and Ty Lee came to the hole moments later and peered down into it, seeing the movement of the water and rock in the pipe.
"Nope, no way. This is where I'm stopping," Mai said in disgust as she stared down into the drain.
"Come on, Mai, Azula gave us a job to do. We can't give up now," Ty Lee said, obviously very motivated.
"Have fun, there's no way I'm going to jump in that sludge juice," Mai maintained.
Ty Lee gave her comrade a thoughtful glance and a shrug before she jumped into the hole in pursuit of the three escapees; Mai just gave the girl a disgusted grimace as she closed the metal door.
Sokka, Katara, and Toph all held onto one another as the brown liquid continued to push them through the darkness of the pipeline; the odd flow of the sludge caused the three of them to spontaneously hit up against the sides of the hard surface inside of the pipe. Finally, the tunnel lead out into the brightness of the outside environment, momentarily blinding the three (or more precisely two) as they fell from the opening reserved for waste disposal. Following the motion of the slurry, all three of them let out short grunts as they landed on the hard, dirt-covered ground.
"Ewwwww, gross," Sokka noted, standing up and attempting to wipe off the thick liquid from his clothes.
"What do you mean 'ewwwww'?" Katara spat with a hint of anger, "this was YOUR idea."
Sokka gave his sister an irritated look before he glanced back up at the opening still releasing the slurry; his eyes widened as he saw Ty Lee emerge from within the bowls of the drill.
"Katara, Toph, block her off," he commanded with a pointed finger.
The two female benders thrusted their arms in front of themselves, combining their bending abilities to clog the projectile of water and rock from the machine. Ty Lee's movement was suddenly halted as a result of the two benders working to stop the flow of the slurry.
"Guys, keep that up," Sokka exclaimed, "the pressure on the inside of the drill is going to build, then when Aang delivers the final blow it'll be ready to burst!"
"Where's Aang?" Toph asked.
"He went to the top of the drill," Katara informed, "he's going to try to attack the outside of the machine."
Toph swallowed a little bit to tame her dry throat, "I hope he doesn't run into that guy."
"Which guy?" Sokka asked.
"The boy with the white hair," she murmured.
End of Chapter 11
Author's Note: I feel like this chapter wasn't as well-structured as the last one, although I was able to further the plot along a little more. I really want Accelerator to demonstrate more of his abilities, but there aren't a lot of characters in the avatar universe who can pose any genuine threat for him. I'll try to make him a more prominent character in the story, but until then – please leave a comment if you liked or disliked this. I don't know, begging for comments at this point is just getting boring.