Chapter 13: The New Plan
Accelerator leaned against the surface of the brick wall with his arms crossed in front of him; Mai and Ty Lee stood next to him as they all silently waited. Azula had returned to the drill to give instructions to the remaining members of the crew – the initial plan had failed, so they had to work fast before earth nation reinforcements could show up. Since the new plan only involved a small group of people, Azula ordered the rest of the troops to temporarily retreat.
Accelerator watched as hundreds of Fire Nation troops flooded from the inside of the drills and quickly made their escape; some of them had taken transportation vehicles for a faster retreat. Azula made her way back to the other teens who watched on in curiosity.
"Why are they all running away?" Ty Lee questioned with an innocent face.
"It's a temporary retreat," Azula quickly informed, not giving much thought to who asked, "I told them to move back exactly 5 miles away from here. The Earth Nation may take possession of the drill, but they wouldn't dare follow the fire nation soldiers that far away from the city. Once we complete what we need to, I shall provide them with a signal to return."
"What's the signal?" Mai asked in her groggy tone.
"I'm going to have to send one of you out there to inform War Minister Qin of our status," Azula stated, "nevertheless, we shall cross that bridge when we get to it."
Finally walking up to the group, the fire princesses' golden eyes stared down at General Sung who had been nervously silent the entire time; he swallowed in fear as he stared back up into her burning irises, the intensity of her glare was almost unparalleled.
"Now, back to you," she said as she leaned down towards the general, "you understand what's going on don't you?"
Her question was more a threat than it was a genuine inquiry; her facial features were stern and unmoving as she got closer to the man.
"Here's what's going to happen," she began, "you are going to take us to the most unguarded area of the wall, and then you are going to show us exactly where the Earth King is located. Do you understand?"
Sweat began to form on the general's brow as he nodded to Azula's command, "Y-yes, of course, whatever you want. Just please don't kill me."
His plea came out in whimpers and the bottom of his jaw was quivering in silent fear.
"I won't kill you," Azula said with a smile, "not if you do what you're told."
With that, she stood back up to her feet, still looking down at the cowering general.
"Stand up," she commanded.
Letting out a labored wheeze, the man pushed himself off of the ground and to his feet; his eyes were still locked onto the princesses' steely gaze as he was fully able to stand.
"Start walking!" she yelled in a low voice, causing the general to slightly flinch before he started moving alongside the large wall.
Following the direction of the massive brick structure, the four of them maintained their pace as they walked on the outside of the wall, all the while looking up at it and taking in its size.
Meanwhile with Aang and friends…
Sokka was busy wiping off the rest of the slurry from his clothes, letting out mumbled curses as he worked. Aang and Katara walked behind him, chuckling to themselves at the water tribe boy's antics. Toph took up the rear of the group, following behind all three of them – she had also put her normal clothes back on, and ditched the wardrobe from the medic bay. Momo was busy flying around above the rest of them, trying to catch a beetle that was attempting to escape.
The group had left the battle area immediately, almost as soon as Aang had stopped the drill which resulted in an explosion of slurry. Now they were headed back up to the wall, but they wanted to create enough distance between themselves and the fire nation before they attempted to return. Coming to a nice, secluded spot, Aang and Toph combined their bending abilities to pull a large slab of the earth up from the ground, at least large enough for the entire group to stand on. After waiting for everyone to get on it, the two benders began to slowly propel the piece of rock up along the side of the wall; the group ascended the structure until they finally reached the top, careful to disembark from the slab and walk onto the surface of the wall.
"Hey, where's General Sung?" Aang noted upon entering onto the wall.
Looking around, the group was surprised that they didn't see the general - in fact, they didn't see anyone. The soldiers who used to guard the edge of the wall were nowhere to be found; it's like they all vanished.
"Hello?" Aang called out, hoping to receive some kind of response.
"O–over here!" a voice suddenly shouted out.
The gang quickly followed the source of the voice and came to see an area that was practically covered in bodies; the lifeless figures of soldiers were scattered about the brick-laden floor. Aang's fears were heightened upon seeing pools of blood flow in between the cracks of the ground and engulf the surface of some areas of the floor. There were survivors, however, which Aang was glad to see, but even they seemed to have garnered some horrifying wounds. The survivors stood off on the side as they tended to their own injuries, but a few of them couldn't help but stare hypnotically at the dead bodies in front of them. One of the men stood up once he saw the avatar and his companions near the area.
"The avatar," the man quietly exclaimed as he watched the group come closer.
"What happened here?" Aang asked immediately; the absolute carnage that he was witnessing was enough to make him sick.
"We were attacked," the man answered, lowering his head in utter defeat.
"By who?" Katara followed up.
The man did not look back up and instead continued to stare down at the ground, "by the 'boy with the white hair'."
Toph's eyes widened and her entire body stiffended upon the utterance of those words; Aang's mouth suddenly closed up in realization. He hadn't actually engaged the white-haired boy in real combat, but even with the brief time he saw the boy, Aang could tell he was powerful.
"When did this happen?" Sokka interjected.
"It happened during the battle between the avatar and the Fire Nation Princess. Our orders from General Sung had been to continue out onslaught with boulders. We were beginning to gain the upper hand when, out of nowhere, we saw something land on the wall from the sky. It appeared to be a white-haired boy. We told him to identify himself and stand down, but he refused. Before any of us could react, he took out a third of our forces in less than a second; the general told us to attack, so we followed his orders. We attacked him with all our might, but he was effortlessly able to negate all of our attacks and then eliminate the remainder of the troops. The entire fight wasn't even a minute long – we didn't stand a chance."
As he was talking, the man let his arm wander up and grip at his shoulder; thin strips were wrapped around it to stop the bleeding, but even then, the color red seemed to stain his skin.
"…I'm sorry," Aang said with a saddened look.
The man glanced up at him and gave the boy a solemn nod of half-hearted appreciation.
"Don't worry, we have a plan to stop the fire nation once and for all," Sokka said confidently, "that's why we're here – we need to see the Earth King. The information we have with us is of crucial importance. Could you please take us to see the Earth King?"
The soldier turned his body and pointed out into the expanse of Ba Sing Se; the city was composed of a variety of buildings that stretched throughout the area.
"The Earth King's palace is in that direction. You should be able to take a train to the city. The King does not see visitors often, but if you present your reason for arriving at Ba Sing Se, he may hear you out.
Great! Can you take us to him?" Sokka asked.
"I'm afraid not," the man sternly replied, "I must remain here to tend to by fellow soldiers;, reinforcements accompanied with medics shall arrive here soon, so it is my duty to stay."
"We understand," Katara replied, "I'm sure we can find our own way to the Earth King."
"Thank you," the man said with a slight bow, "There's a flight of stairs if you walk further down, they should take you to a platform where you can catch a train into the city. I wish you the best of luck."
With that, the man turned back around and walked to regroup with his fellow soldiers.
Aang looked at his friends; they all seemed to share the same amount of sorrow for the soldiers. If the Earth King agreed to their plan, then the mens' deaths would not be in vain. Slowly turning and heading away from the group of soldiers, remorse weighing them down, they followed the path of bricks further along the wall.
"We'll make this right," Aang whispered quietly, "I'll make this right."
Meanwhile…
Ty Lee let out an annoyed sigh, letting her arms drop down to her sides.
"Are we there yet?" she asked with a bored expression, "sand is starting to get into my shoes, and i'm pretty sure I might have a sun burn."
"Just suck it up and be quiet. We're almost there," Azula shouted before she glanced at General Sung, "isn't that right, general?" she asked.
"Y-yes!" he spurted out, "we should arrive there in a matter of minutes."
"Good," Azula said with a hint of glee in her eyes.
"Azula, what are we going to do once we get into the city?" Mai asked bluntly, "we can't just walk around Ba Sing Se in these uniforms, it'll give us away."
"I've already thought of that," the Fire Nation princess promptly responded, "obviously we will have to change our attire. Stealing the clothes of unsuspecting citizens should do the job; the earth kingdom wouldn't suspect any of its people to be traitors, so we can probably move throughout the city without issue."
"Ohhh, I see," Ty Lee said aloud in wonder, "that's a great plan, Azula!"
"Hmph, I know. That's why I came up with it," the fire princess responded with a smirk.
The group continued to follow behind the general, careful to not let him out of their sight - but to be honest, where could he go? Besides the wall, there was nothing but open desert lands for miles. Finally coming to a stop, General Sung looked up and down the bricks that composed the wall.
"It's... here," he weakly said, pointing his finger at a small area of the wall.
Azula took a look at the wall and then shifted her attention over to the silent esper.
"Can you break through?" she asked.
"Heh, do you doubt me?" he responded, causing the princess to cross her arms in front of her as she gave him a smirk.
"We shall see," she stated.
Chuckling to himself slightly, Accelerator placed his eyes back onto the target, staring quietly at the collection of yellow bricks that were tightly stacked on top of one another.
"You might want to step back," he said, making it obvious he was talking to everyone.
Giving the esper enough space to proceed with his attack, all four of the people backed away as they kept their eyes on him.
Satisfied with their distance, Accelerator took a deep breath and reeled his fist back; gripping his fingers together to form a fist, the esper launched a powerful punch into the brick wall causing it to explode in a cloud of sand and dust. The thunderous roar was immediately followed by a shock wave that was felt by the teens behind him; some pieces of brick became scattered all across the ground while others simply caved into the wall. After the smoke cleared, the four members all watched as it revealed a relaxed Accelerator staring at a large hole that had been carved into the wall. Azula was surprised, the thickness of the wall was much more than she initially thought; instead it being a couple of feet like she imagined, the thickness was about 15 feet, at least. The circular hole that Accelerator made seemed to tear effortlessly through the solid rock that composed the interior of the wall; edges of the inside of the newly made cave had been forcefully pushed out of the way.
Accelerator was the first to take a step inside of the hole before he glanced back at the group, "hey, are you guys coming, or what?"
Shaking themselves out of their momentary amazement, all four of them followed him into the hole, all the while staring at the opening at the other side.
End of Chapter 13
Author's Note: Hey, guys, how has your day been? Cool, I don't care. This chapter was really a doozy to write because I was wondering if I should only focus on Accelerator and his group or if I was also going to write about Aang. I'll probably alternate between the two stories, but each of them are hopefully going to further the plot. Anyway, if you liked this chapter, please comment - if you didn't like it, slap yourself in the face and then comment. Thank you!