Chapter 24: Crashing the Party
The next few moments were full of a combination of apprehension and wonder. The room stunk of uncertainty.
"Who are you?" Long Feng demanded with a line of Dai Li agents behind him.
"None of your business," the white haired boy responded with a glare.
Looking around the room, scanning the faces of the guests, Accelerator moved forward into the crowd; people moved to the side, splitting apart to reveal the open floor to the dull-faced esper.
"Stop!" Long Feng commanded.
"Calm down, asshole," Accelerator growled, "I'm not here to crash your party or anything. I just happen to be looking for someone."
"Looking for someone?" the man repeated, confused. His eyes darted around the room as if he was searching for who the boy was talking about.
His face froze in understanding as he considered something; was the boy looking for the princess? - Azula.
Long Feng, grasping the situation finally, straightened himself up and regained his composure as he looked over at Accelerator, "I may know who you're looking for. Perhaps, we can help each other?"
"Oh? What does that mean?" the esper wondered with a lidded stare.
Clearing his throat into a half-closed fist, Long Feng continued with a controlled voice, "I can show you to who you are looking for; however, you must agree to do something for me first."
He spoke with a confident smirk and a calculating gaze.
"'Something for you'?" Accelerated repeated with a chuckle; the chuckle quickly turned into a laugh; and the laugh morphed into a cackle that terrifyingly hung in the air.
Finally allowing his laugh to calm down, Accelerator returned to his calm demeanor, "Do I look stupid to you? I didn't come here to form a contract with you; I came here on a mission of sorts – and I don't care who I have to go through to complete it."
Long Feng snorted through his nostrils, tilting his head at the teen disappointedly, "I see. It seems there's nothing I can say to stop you. I warn you, then, if you continue to advance I shall have no choice but to destroy you. You may be powerful – I can tell – but you are outnumbered."
Shifting his weight to look around Long Feng's figure at the line of Dai Li agents, he proceeded to count them; one, two, three….five, six….nine, ten – Fifteen. There were fifteen agents.
"Fifteen?" Accelerator said.
Long Feng narrowed his eyes, "Yes….do you yield?"
"Yield?' heh, this will only take twenty seconds; thirty at the most," the esper replied, placing his hands in his pockets and taking a step forward.
"ATTACK!" screamed Long Feng with the wave of his hand.
In one simultaneous movement, the entire line of Dai Li agents thrusted their fists forwards; black, glove-like appendages shot ahead and sailed through the air towards the esper, who stood motionlessly on the carpet.
"Too slow," Accelerator whispered.
Placing his foot down strongly on the floor, he remained still as a thunderous shockwave dispersed throughout the room and altered the path of the attacks. Missing him by several meters, some of the gloves mindlessly shot into the crowds of screaming guests; before they could hit any of the bystanders however, they were stopped by the combination of water, rock, and air from somewhere in the crowd.
"That's enough," came a voice from behind the esper.
Turning around to face the source of the voice, Accelerator came to a bored glare upon seeing Aang standing amongst the myriad of guests.
"What are you doing here?" the white haired teen asked with a sigh. He was already bored with the presence of the young airbender.
"That doesn't matter right now," Aang returned with seriousness in his voice, "Whatever you're doing here is threatening the lives of these innocent people."
Toph, Katara, and Sokka all stood behind the bald boy, keeping a careful eye on the esper.
Before Accelerator could respond, some of the Dai Li members leapt from their stations and approached him quickly in order to take advantage of his sudden lapse of concentration. But their efforts were quickly crushed by a swift current of air that blew them to the ground.
"Stop! You can't fight in here. There are too many people you could hurt," Aang pleaded, holding his staff firmly in one hand.
"Ah, the Avatar," hissed Long Feng, "Are you working with the intruder?"
"What? No!" Aang said, taken aback by his sudden claim.
"Then why will you not allow my forces to take care of him? Why are you protecting him?" Long Feng pushed.
"I'm not protecting him. I'm protecting the guests – the one's who you're supposed to be protecting," Aang retorted.
Ignoring the avatar's point, Long Feng growled, "Don't interfere."
"I won't let you hurt anyone," the boy stated.
"SHUT UP!" Accelerator screamed; the entire room began to shake - a few of the chandeliers fell from the ceiling and crashed down onto the carpeted ground bellow.
"I don't care if you two argue, but I still have people I need to find," he murmured as he peered over at Long Feng, "and YOU know exactly where they are, don't you?"
Staring into the esper's deep, red eyes, for a second Long Feng felt a twinge of fear rush through his body.
"Guards, ATTACK!" he commanded as he turned around a attempted to escape.
Without wasting even a second, Accelerator dug his heel into the ground and sped forward at the remaining line of Dai Li agents, breaking the floor in the process; using both his hands, he planted his fists into the guts of two guards and sent them flying back into the wall. Turning to his right, before the nearest agent could retaliate, Accelerator blocked the man's vision with his hand and proceeded to stomp on the side of the guard's knee, causing it to snap as he fell to the floor. By this time, the other agents had regained their rock-gloves and aimed for Accelerator's head. Turning to glance at them, with a maniacal grin, he stepped to the side and allowed the attacks to move past him.
"You missed," he chuckled.
Keeping his fingers straightened, he felt flesh tear as he pierced through one of the Dai Li agent's chest; lifting the man's body off of the floor, he tossed the corpse onto the other guard, causing him to stumble and fall down. Walking over to the agent, who struggled to get his dead comrade off of him, looked up at Accelerator with fear in his eyes.
"Please, don't-"
The man's pleas went unanswered before his skull was shattered beneath the esper's foot. Watching from a safe distance, the other Dai Li agents stared on in horror at the sheer carnage that took place before them.
"What're you looking at?" Accelerator said with a sedated voice.
Taking gulps to swallow their fear, some of the guards let out war cries before running toward the esper in an effort to gain some kind of upper hand. Attacking the closest one to him – he honestly didn't care which – Accelerator punched him directly in the mouth, breaking his jaw and slamming him into the ground. But the esper wasn't done yet; gripping one of the party tables nearest him, he flung it over at the group of Dai Li agent's. Some of them were quick enough to dodge the object, but others were taken out by the speeding table. Thick, red blood splattered over the floor upon impact as lifeless bodies fell to the ground.
Before the agents who dodged his attack could get back to their feet, he was already in front of them – there were three left. Not even caring to put much emphasis into this one, he simply backhanded two of them into one another and watched as they flew high into the air before landing back down onto the floor, unconscious.
By this time, Aang and his friends where hurriedly leading the group of people out of the room and away from any kind of danger; the avatar didn't really have time to stop the blood lusted esper – he wasn't even sure if he could.
The final agent looked into Accelerator's uncaring eyes and fell to his knees with his hands clasped in front of him.
"Please," he began.
Accelerator considered killing him as well, but he realized Long Feng was nearing the exit. Weaving his way through the crowd that was already heading to the door in a panic, Long Feng tried to hide himself among the guests but he was quickly confronted by Aang.
"What's the matter with you?" the airbender began, "You put everyone in this room at risk."
"Foolish boy, if there's anyone who deserves the blame here, it's THAT monster," Long Feng screeched, pointing over at Accelerator.
The esper's clothes were now covered in blood as he stood over the final guard who seemed to be pleading with the white haired teen.
"J-just let me go…please. I-I don't want to die," he said, his fingers intertwined in a clasp.
Accelerator looked unmoved and instead of answering, raised his hand in a threatening fist as he aimed for the man's face.
"Say goodbye," he growled.
But before he could deliver the final blow, he heard someone call out to him.
"Accelerator!" Ty Lee gasped as she emerged from a room on the far end of the wall.
Following the wide-eyed brunette, Azula wandered out as well with an expression of surprise adorning her face as she looked upon the esper.
Ty Lee seemed overjoyed to see him, but her look of sheer excitement soon wandered into the territory of horror as she stared at all the bodies covered in blood that decorated the floor. Her eyes widened even more as she scanned the carnage; quickly, she placed her hand over her mouth in an effort not to vomit.
Azula stared at the room with her mouth agape, although she was not nearly as horrified as Ty Lee; Accelerator turned to them, his eyes shifting through a series of emotions – first, a slight relief that they weren't hurt (which surprised him), and second, a feeling of remorse at seeing Ty Lee's reaction to what he had done.
"You…how did you escape?" Long Feng demanded.
"You're guards were never an issue," Azula coldly informed, "we merely needed you to be distracted before we made our move."
Long Feng let out a frustrated huff, failing to think of anything as a reply.
"Wait, you're….that girl I fought on the drill," Aang practically whispered in surprise, "how did you get into Ba Sing Se?"
Azula smiled. She knew her cover had been blown – that all of their covers had been blown – but it was important to make it seem like that no longer mattered. She had to find a way to salvage the situation.
"There is nowhere you can hide from me, Avatar," she began, "even in the 'impenetrable city of Ba Sing Se', you cannot hope to escape the Fire Nation."
Aang swallowed, allowing the saliva to wet his dry throat.
"Whatever you're here to do…we're going to stop you," Sokka interjected.
The smile on Azula's face widened, "Fool. You cannot stop what you don't know."
As the Fire Princess bantered back and fourth with the avatar and his group, Accelerator's attention was grabbed by a series of cuts on Ty Lee's body. The girl had since removed her hands from her mouth, but she still looked obviously shaken; red gashed adorned her shoulders, arms, and hands.
Questioningly, ignoring the verbal battle between Azula and the Avatar, Accelerator approached Ty Lee who looked at him with a face that made him inwardly cringe – she looked like she was scared of him. But Accelerator made sure to be gentle as he ran his hands alongside her arm to emphasize the wounds.
"How did this happen?" he asked, causing her eyes to slightly soften.
Ty Lee nodded her head toward Long Feng, "That guy. He discovered me and Azula. He asked me a few questions, but when I refused to answer…." Her voice trailed off, as if she hesitated to relive the memory.
Accelerator sighed, "I understand," he said, "You don't have to explain."
His words were simple. Yet again, he had made her feel safe.
On the outside, Accelerator seemed calm and composed, but on the inside his rage was bubbling; looking over at Azula, he spotted a large, red bruise-like splotch on her cheek. He was mad now. It was almost surprising to him how angry he had gotten with just a few simple details.
"Long Feng," Accelerator said, cutting through the dialogue between Azula and Aang. His eyes were hidden beneath his white hair, casting a shadow over his face to conceal any details.
The man looked over at the esper, careful not to antagonize him any more than was needed.
"You better start running," the white haired teen growled as he slowly raised his voice. The veins in his neck and forehead popped out as he opened his mouth, "Cuz I'm gonna KILL you!"
Long Feng expected this, but he didn't have a way to deal with a situation like this; the first thing that came to his mind was a preemptive strike – bad idea.
After moving his hands in a circular pattern, he shot forth several stones that broke apart from the floor beneath him; without even blinking, the esper swatted the attack away as though it didn't even matter.
"I told you to run," he hissed, taking his first steps toward Long Feng.
Aang stepped in his way, facing him with a determined look, "No. I won't let you kill him."
"Well, then, I'll have to kill you!" he screamed as he lunged toward the airbender.
"NO!" Screamed Ty Lee from behind Accelerator.
The esper turned around, surprised to see Ty Lee slumped to the floor on her knees with tears streaming down her face.
"No…no more killing," she cried, "No more murder. No more death. Please…just…stop."
Accelerator stared back at her, his gaze landing on her pleading eyes; he then looked over at Azula, who stared down at Ty Lee with an equal amount of surprise evident on her face. He stood in silence, unsure of what to do next – the look in her eyes was too much for him to ignore.
He stared down at his hands and looked at the drops of blood that stained his skin – the blood of his enemies; for some reason, he continued to stare down at them as though they were a book that told him a story – a story that he didn't like. Turning his head to look over at the bodies that lay on the floor, Accelerator realized something:
He hated this part of himself.
He hated the fact that he would loose control. He hated the fact that he wouldn't even bat an eye at taking the life of another person. He hated the fact that he would enjoy it.
He hated how if affected those around him.
His hands slightly trembled as he closed them into tight fists.
"No more."
Those words echoed over and over again in his otherwise blank mind.
"…Fine," he said after a moment of silence, "No more."
"No more," he repeated, this time much more softly as he nodded his head with a newfound sense of understanding.
Turning to look at Ty Lee and Azula, he gave the first genuine smile he had in a while.
"Come one, let's go," he said.
End of Chapter 24
Author's Note: What do you guys think? Did I rush the pacing of this chapter? One of the biggest concerns I had in this chapter was the fact that I knew I wanted Accelerator to come to some kind of epiphany regarding both his current and past actions – I just didn't know how I would do it. Anyway, before I conclude this note, I want you to partake in a quick little quiz.
1) I want you to think of a number between 1 and 10
2) Multiply that number by 2.
3) Multiply what you get from the second step by 5.
4) Divide your current number by the original number you picked.
5) Now, subtract 7 from the current number.
If you got:
"1" – you did something wrong, go back and try again.
"2" – you cheated because you knew how this worked.
"3" – Leave a comment
Thanks!