Chapter 12: Aftermath
Accelerator's face read of boredom and uninterest, but internally he was quite intrigued by the fight happening in front of him; his hands still absentmindedly remained in his pockets, and his eyes were intently watching the two benders engage in battle.
Azula had forced Aang on the defensive, her continuous attacks refused to give the airbender any time to retaliate. Sending two blue spheres of fire in his direction, Azula made sure to keep the boy off of his balance as she continued to close in on him. Getting within range, the princess warrior twisted her hips and rotated her leg up from the ground, narrowly missing the avatar with a powerful kick. The bald teen backed away from her, but soon became aware that his retreat was blocked by the high walls of Ba Sing Se. Taking advantage of the boy's narrow escape route, Azula put her two hands together as she aimed directly for the target's heart; launching a beam of her trademark blue fire, the Fire Nation princess watched as the attack neared Aang. Upon seeing the oncoming flames, his eyes widened before he quickly rolled out of the way; the fire exploded against the yellow bricks that composed the wall and blue embers disappeared into the air. Azula resumed her onslaught but was quickly stopped by the sudden impact of a large boulder on the metal shell of the drill, forming a dent as the massive rock bounced and rolled off of the machine. Irritated, the Fire princess glanced up to the top of the wall – a line of earth bender warriors stood in a row of about 10 individuals that starred down at the drill.
"General Cheng, please tell your soldiers to stop shooting rocks down here," Aang yelled up to the wall.
A feint voice echoed from atop the massive brick structure, "soldiers, whatever you do, don't stop shooting rocks down there." It said.
The soldiers continued their assault, picking up large boulders and launching them down at the drill; Azula clicked her tongue in annoyance as she tried to dodge more of the approaching rocks.
Accelerator let out a small chuckle as he watched the female fire bender struggle to avoid the circular stones; although he found the situation quite humorous, the esper knew that he had to take out the earth benders – they were too much of a nuisance. Creating a wind vortex that surrounded his body, Accelerator was slowly lifted off of the ground as he gently ascended into the sky. Floating toward the top of the wall, he scanned the row of earth benders and the terrified look of the person who was most likely the general. Lightly landing on the stone surface, Accelerator allowed a small grin to spread across his face as the earth benders took defensive stances at his sudden appearance.
"Halt! Identify yourself," commanded one of the soldiers.
"Me? I'm your worst nightmare," he smiled.
Before any of the soldiers could react, the esper stomped on the floor and several bricks from the ground were knocked foreword; hitting some of the soldiers, the solid projectiles tore through the bodies of the uniformed earth benders, breaking through flesh and bone. Several of the soldiers fell to the ground in pain, while others simply became limp – killed instantly. The ones who were harmed gripped at their wounds while the others began their own attacks; a large reserve of boulders were set next to the soldiers, and some of them took advantage of the arsenal. Using earth bending, the soldiers picked up the boulders and launched them as the still esper. Accelerator pulled his hand out of his pocket and quickly balled it into a fist; without much thought, he punched the nearest boulder, pressing his knuckles firmly against the rock's surface. The object shattered into hundreds of sharp pieces that cascaded outwards and pierced the remaining members of the earth bending group. Some of the other boulders simply missed him and harmlessly landed and rolled past him.
"Nice aim," he snickered to himself.
"R-reinforcements! Reinforcements-" General Sung began to yell before his mouth was forcefully covered by a hand.
"Shut it," Accelerator said as he pressed his palm forcefully against the general's lips, "If you yell out again, I'm going to kill you. Understand?"
General Sung nervously gulped before he nodded in acceptance to the esper's words.
Removing his hand from the man's mouth, Accelerator walked over to the edge of the wall and glanced down at the battle between Aang and Azula that continued to rage on. It looked like Azula was gaining the upper hand though, quickly tearing through the avatar's defenses and overwhelming him with her attacks.
Taking advantage of a vital opening, the warrior princess was able to kick Aang in the ribs and send his body flying back into the wall; upon slamming against the surface of the brick wall, Aang let out a grunt of pain as his body slowly slumped down to the floor. Quickly picking himself off of the ground, he glanced at one of the boulders that had been sent down from the top of the wall; his eyes widened at a sudden idea that worked its way into his head. As Azula approached him once more, Aang mustered as much bending force he could muster in an instant and sent a giant gust of wind toward the cautious princess. Unable to avoid the attack, Azula let out a labored grunt as her body was suddenly blown backwards into the air before she fell back onto the hard metal plating of the drill. Realizing he didn't have much time to act on his plan, Aang hurriedly bended the boulder towards himself and used airbending to slice the edges off of it until it came to a point. After placing the point of the rock into the drill's hull, Aang glanced back at a recovering Azula who was now getting back to her feet.
"Here goes nothing," he said to himself with a sigh.
Jumping up along the surface of the giant wall, Aang used his speed to run vertically up towards the top of the massive structure. Spinning the air around him into a rotating ball, Aang propelled himself further up the wall. Believing that he was finally high enough, he reached the height of his run and began to turn back around; pushing off from the wall itself, Aang sprinted back down the surface, speeding up the more he went.
"What is he doing?" Accelerator asked himself, confused by the avatar's actions.
As the bald air bender continued to speed up, Accelerator's eyes slowly widened in understanding.
Aang's feet suddenly left the surface of the wall as he leapt from it, launching himself down closer to the boulder that was positioned against the hull of the drill. Azula had fully recovered and was now rushing to stop the avatar from delivering his final attack; it was now a race against time as the princess launched her own attack of blue fire to intercept the falling avatar's path.
"She's too late," Accelerator whispered to himself.
The esper was right. Azula's attack barely missed the avatar as he firmly landed on the boulder, sending a thunderous shockwave to emanate from the point of impact. Letting out a strained shriek, the Fire Nation princess flew into the air due to the strength of the blast. Immediately after Aang had delivered the final blow, thick slurry shot up from the thin slits between the metallic plates. The liquid roared into the sky from within the moving drill, coating the surface of the machine as it fell back down; the heated, hazy steam from the walls of the drill slowly seeped out as the mechanisms on the inside began to shut down. The forward motion of the machine slowed to a stop as the rotating bit of the drill lost its movement; the center of the wall was slightly pushed in due to the drill's approach, and several of the bricks that were once a part of the giant structure had now been knocked loose from their positions.
Accelerator stared down at the aftermath of Aang's attack; the drill was no longer moving and was now coated in the yellowish color of the slurry. Grabbing ahold of General Sung's military uniform, Accelerator gave the man a stern glare.
"Don't scream," the esper commanded before he jumped off of the ledge of the wall with the General in-hand.
Sung let out a horrified shriek as their two bodies quickly began to descend towards the ground, gravity speeding up their movement the more they fell. Several seconds before impact, Accelerator utilized the air particles around them to slow the speed of the fall, allowing them to gently land onto the solid ground. Dropping the sniveling man to the dirt-covered floor, Accelerator glanced around in search of the defeated Azula. Conveniently, he happened to spot three figures who emerged from the back of the drill; they had been fully covered in slurry, so their features were slightly hidden by the mask of the thick liquid, but even then, Accelerator could tell who they were. Ty Lee, who for some reason was still smiling, seemed to be talking to herself, although that may be due to her words being ignored by the other two teens. Mai was the only one of the three girls who didn't look like she had been completely submerged in the liquid, yet she still glanced at Ty Lee with disgust. Azula walked in front of both of them, her face maintained an expression of silent rage as slurry ran down the side of her face and over her clothes. Accelerator's manner remained the same as the three of them noticed his presence and began to head in his direction; Azula, still obviously quite irate, stomped straight towards the esper in a fashion that would've probably been intimidating to most people.
"You! Where did you go!" She questioned, although it sounded more like a demand.
Accelerator opened his mouth to answer, but he was almost immediately interrupted by the Fire Nation princess who continued shouting.
"Nevermind! It is irrelevant, the avatar is gone!" She said, stopping mere inches from the esper's face with a scowl, "and YOU let him get away!"
Accelerator was unaffected by her aggressiveness, and his eyes slowly scanned her face.
Ty Lee walked up behind Azula and looked down at the man whimpering at the esper's feet.
"Who's that?" she asked, pointing at the General.
"Not sure," Accelerator replied, tearing his gaze away from the princesses', "but my guess is that he's a general. He was commanding the soldiers up on the wall to attack me."
"Wait a minute, you were on the wall?" Azula asked, staring up at the esper with mild surprise.
"Yeah, there were a few groups of soldiers that were stationed there, but I took care of them," he stated.
Azula brought her thumb up to her mouth and bit on the nail in thought as she glared down at General Sung who let out a whimper.
"You got a look at how thick the wall was, correct?" she asked, to which the esper silently nodded.
"Do you think you could break through the wall?" Azula said, hoping that she wasn't overestimating the skills of the esper.
"Break through it? Heh, I could completely destroy it if I wanted to," he said with a chuckle.
The Fire Nation princess said nothing in response and instead looked up at the massive wall in deep thought - her head then shot to the broken drill that was now motionless.
"The goal of this initial expedition was to infiltrate the wall while we had the element of surprise, however, now, the city has been alerted to us - we can no longer continue with our primary plan, we must formulate a new one."
The princess explained as she glanced at each of the faces of the teens who stood in front of her.
"What if we take a small group and use them to infiltrate the wall while the city is distracted by the presence of the wall; it will give us time to get in," Accelerator said.
"That can possibly work," Azula returned, "however, we would need to know which area of the wall has less surveillance so that we won't get caught. We don't even have a map of the city."
"No, but…" Accelerator said as he gestured down to the uniformed man on the ground, "we have someone who has actually lived in the city and who may have accurate knowledge of the area."
"You bring up a good point," Azula said, her anger now subsiding, "so then it is decided:"
"We shall infiltrate Ba Sing Se."
End of chapter 12
Author's Note: Hey, guys, here's a new chapter for you. Aang may have 'gotten away', but I still intend on him and the group running into Accelerator sometime in the future. I don't know where exactly this story will go, but I do know one thing for certain….I know you guys should comment and let me know what you thought of this chapter. :)