Chapter 26
Liling grinned to herself watching as Teo explained how to use the gliders his father had invented. Katara was standing on the edge of one of the temple's parapets and holding onto the one the gliders as she looked over the edge.
"The wind will carry you. It supports something inside you." Teo explained as he too watched a very nervous Katara, "Something even lighter than air. And that something takes over when you fly."
Katara put her glider to the side and looked down at the other kids flying below her, swallowing thickly.
"I've changed my mind." She stated as she started to back away from the edge, "I think I was born without that something."
"Impossible!" Teo said with a laugh."Everybody has it!"
"Spirit." Aang said, "That's the something you're talking about."
"Yeah," Teo agreed thoughtfully then nodded at Aang with a grin, "I suppose it is."
Katara took a deep breath and picked the glider back up again, shifting nervously on her feet. Liling picked up a glider as she walked up to the nervous girl.
"Katara, Don't be afraid just go for it and have fun." Liling said "Just go with the flow of things." The girl looked at the edge gripping the glider tightly then jumped off.
Liling felt the wind blowing her face. "This is amazing! " Liling exclaimed while letting out a hearty laugh enjoying a new experience.
Liling heard a loud scream of terror she turned her head slightly seeing Katara in her glider the scream died down and became laughter as the wind caught the wings of her glider and she began flying through the clouds until Katara flew next to her.
"I can't believe I'm flying!" Katara exclaimed.
"Just make sure you keep your mouth closed so you don't swallow a bug." Aang advised as he flew up onto Katara's other side with Momo, who was catching said bugs in his mouth.
Liling nodded taking his advice hoping no bugs reach her mouth. Liling maneuvered her glider further ahead until she met up with Teo.
"You're so lucky that you can do this everyday." Liling said to Teo. " It's so much fun!"Teo smiled at her. "Can you show me a few tricks?" She asked.
There in the air Teo and Liling did a few basic tricks soaring through the air doing loop de loops , going in and out of the clouds laughing having fun.
Aang watched Liling have fun, he felt happy to have his best friend back hearing her laugh enjoying herself.
Aang grinned and looked towards Teo and Liling as they both landed back on the ground, "Even though Teo's not an Airbender, he really does have the spirit of one."
The young Airbender veered downward and glided back landing beside Teo lightly then he snapped his glider shut.
"I've been thinking," Aang commented as he looked at the boy, "If you want to see what's in that room, I'd be happy to open the door for you."
"Great!" Teo exclaimed happily, beaming up at the Airbender.
Liling grinned truthfully she is just as curious as Teo is on what's behind the door too.
"Wait!" Katara cried out as she flew past them, "How do I land this thing? What if I land over a-ack-ack-bleck! Bug! Bug! Ack, that was a bug!"
Teo, Aang, and Liling exchanged amused looks it took a few minutes to help Katara land safely with them. From there they went back to the sealed door Aang stood in front while Katara,Liling and Teo were standing a foot behind him.
"I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's inside!" Teo said excitedly Liling nodded in agreement watching as Aang took a deep breath moved his hands shooting air at the horns and flipped the three blue dials around so their purple sides were now visible, the sound of the horn filling the hallway as the air was forced through the dials. Aang, Teo, Liling and Katara watched eagerly as the door began to creak open.
Liling gasped at what she saw in through those doors.
"This is a nightmare…" Aang said in horror as he, Katara, Liling and Teo stared at the inside of the Temple Sanctuary with dread and shock on their faces were Fire Nation weapons most of them were complete stacked in containers while some were in the process of finishing.
"Why? Why would someone do this?" Liling asked "This is just…"
"You don't understand!"
The four turned around to stare at Teo's father as he walked up behind them with Sokka.
"You're making weapons for the Fire nation!" Liling exclaimed glaring at him. "This is wrong! Why?!"
"You make weapons for the Fire Nation?!" Sokka demanded angrily as he looked at the older man.
"Explain all this!" Teo barked, sounding surprisingly harsh as he stared at his father, "Now!"
The man looked away from their accusing stares with a shamed look on his face.
"It was about a few years after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement." The man explained as he glanced at his son, "You were too young to remember this, Teo. They were going to destroy everything! Burn it to the ground! I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us! They asked what I had to offer. I offered…my services."
The man looked at his son pleadingly, "You must understand. I did this for you!"
Teo looked way from his father, causing the mechanist's shoulders slumped and he walked away from the five teens, heading back to his work room.
Teo's father sighed as he put two eggs with smiley faces drawn on them into his hot air balloon model, along with a candle to make it float. He watched as the model hot air balloon rose into the air, his expression depressed when the door to his workroom was opened and he turned to look at Aang ,Liling and his son standing in the doorway.
"When are they coming?" Aang asked in a very serious tone.
"Soon." He replied just as one of his time candles popped once, "Very soon."
"You can't give them any more weapons." Liling said.
"If I don't give them what they want, they will destroy this place!" He protested just as his model hot air balloon caught on fire and crashed to the ground, he hurried to put it out with a cloth.
"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Teo asked his father, his voice sorrowfully as he looked up at him.
"I need some time to think." The man said, not making eye contact with any of them and he jumped when the bell on his desk suddenly rang.
"You need to leave!" He said urgently as he tried to usher the three out of the room, "Go!"
"We're not leaving!" Teo snapped.
"Then hide! Quickly!" He ordered and moved the three behind some of his inventions, then he pulled on a rope that opened a trapdoor on the floor of his workroom which lifted Fire Nation war minister into the room.
"You know better than to keep me waiting. Give me what you owe us so we can be on our way." The minister snapped harshly as he walked forward, glaring at him looked at the floor, "Well? Is there a problem?"
"No, right this way." He said quickly and gestured towards the open door, his eyes still downcast.
The minister walked towards the door but Aang used Airbending to push a small table into the door, closing it with a snap as he landed on top of the table in a crouch.
"The deal's off."
"The Avatar…" The minister murmured in surprise.
"Aang, don't get involved!" Teo's father pleaded worriedly as he looked between the minister and Aang.
"If I don't get what I came here for, the Fire Nation will burn this place to rubble!" the minister threatened menacingly.
"Get out of here!" Aang ordered, unleashing a stream of air slapping the minister in the face. "You're leaving empty-handed."
The minister straightened and glared at Aang evilly, "Then the destruction of this temple will be on your head."
The Fire Nation minister left through the trapdoor and Liling stepped out of her hiding spot, Aang thrusted his fist forward airbending the trapdoor shut with a snap.
"This is bad." Teo stated worried as he, Sokka, Katara, Liling and Aang stood on a tall bridge.
"Very bad!" Sokka agreed pessimistically.
"Aang, what are we gonna do?" Katara asked, sounding just as worried as The two boys. "How can we possibly keep them all away."
"I'll tell you how. We have something they don't." Aang said and smirked as he pointed to the sky where a few kids were gliding, "Air power, We control the sky That's something the Fire Nation can't do. We can win!"
"I want to help."
The five teens turn to look at Teo's father as he appeared in the entryway leading onto the bridge.
"Good." Aang said with a nod and a slight smile, "We'll need it."
"With what we got, the fire nation won't stand a chance!" Liling exclaimed
"Oh yeah!" Sokka cheered.
"We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka." Teo's father said as he put his hand on Sokka shoulder, "This boy's a genius!"
"Thank you." Sokka said graciously as he grinned at him, "You're a genius!"
"Thank you!"
Katara, Liling and Aang exchanged deadpan looks then turned back to face Sokka and the mechanist along with the other people in the room who would help defend their home.
"See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get air-borne, but once it did, it just kept going." Sokka explained to the gathering as he gestured to the papers on the table they were standing behind, "You could put a hole in the top, but then all the hot air would escape. So the question, became, how do you keep a lid on hot air?"
"Ugh, if only we knew." Katara muttered and she, Aang, Liling and Teo snickered amongst each other.
"A lid is actually the answer!" Sokka exclaimed ignoring Katara's comment, "If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon."
"Huh, that's actually pretty smart." Katara complimented her brother, her tone sounding slightly surprised.
"Yeah it is." Liling stated. "So any weapons? Traps? Do we have any bombs?"
"We do, we've got four kinds of bombs." Sokka replied "Smoke, slime, fire, and…"
Stink!" The mechanist finished gleefully, Never underestimate the power of stink!"
The group nodded and murmured quietly to themselves for a moment then everyone began heading outside to the parapet to start preparations.
Liling started preparing her glider for their plan to work, she asked Teo to help make a few adjustments, while doing small tweaks on the glider they occasionally small talked and helping her fly better.
"They're coming!" A little girl shouted as she leaned over the edge of the parapet and pointed at the incoming Fire Nation soldiers.
"Are we ready?" Teo asked as he looked around.
"Yes." Katara replied then looked around "But where's Sokka with the war balloon?"
"We'll have to start without it." Aang stated as he jumped off Appa's head, his glider in hand.
"Yeah, let's put our plan into action" Liling chimed in.
Aang nodded at her in agreement and snapped opened his glider as the others began readying the gliders the mechanist had invented for takeoff.
Liling held on her glider and the group of flyers got into formation with Aang at the front and Liling and Teo slightly behind him on either side.
Aang gave the signal and the flyers took a running jump from the parapet, flying through the clouds towards the incoming soldiers.
Aang, Liling and Teo lead the gliders through the clouds and started the assault on the Fire Nation troops making their way up to the top of the mountain, dropping the different bombs on the soldiers.
"Take them out of the sky! Now!"
Liling held onto her glider looking at the soldiers when they raised their spears only to have slime bombs dropped on them.
The Fire Nation soldiers began to cough and fall of the cliff as more bombs were dropped on them. Liling dropped a few of the smoke bombs at a few soldiers
Aang flew closer to the snowy mountain above the soldiers and leapt off his glider, creating an air scooter. He zoomed across the ledge on the air scooter, causing snow to fall on the soldiers below then he jumped back on his glider quickly, a grin spreading across his face as he watched the Fire Nation troops retreat back down the mountain.
"We've got 'em on the run!" Aang shouted as he came up between Teo and Liling, "We need more slime!"
"Got it boss!" Liling called back then turned her glider upwards sharply and flew above the clouds, heading over to where Katara was sitting in Appa's saddle, giving bombs up to the other gliders with Momo helping her.
Liling called out Katara about to get a few bombs until suddenly grappling hooks shoot out of the clouds and nearly hit Appa as they latched onto the cliff Liling narrowly missed it but her glider got damaged breaking a wing she fell through the air luckily she landed on Appa's tail Katara pulled Liling up to the saddle. More metal hooks shot up causing Appa to rear back and nearly toss Katara and Liling from the saddle.
"We gotta move!" Liling exclaimed holding on the reins. She gasped her eyes widening when she saw the metal tanks beginning to scale the cliff wall using the grappling hooks.
"Those things are unstoppable!" Katara exclaimed as she and Liling watched Aang try to stop the tanks.
"They have to have some weakness." Liling said glaring at the metal tanks.
"I think I know how they work." Teo replied observing the tanks as he flew alongside Katara,Liling and Appa, "I remember my dad tinkering with the counterbalance system. Something to do with water. Works great, huh?"
"Water?" Katara questioned as an idea came to her she looked at Liling She nodded having the same idea as hers.
Liling looked over at Teo, "Can you get us close to one?" Liling asked. "We can do something about those tanks."
"No problem!"Teo said
Aang straightened back up and sent his own air slice at the approaching tanks just as Katara and Liling landed beside him after jumping off the back of Teo's chair.
"Remember your stances Katara! Ready?" Liling asked
Katara grinned slightly then the two girls began motioning with their arms preparing to Waterbend while Aang continued to attack the tanks with air.
Katara breathed deeply then kneeled and cupped her hands around her mouth, exhaling a cloud of icy breath that quickly shoots forward, towards an approaching tank, freezing it in place. Katara straightened and raised her arms, bending the ice so that it popped out the bolts keeping the tank's wheels in place, causing the wheels to fall off.
"Nice form Katara! My turn!" Liling exclaimed taking a stance she moved her hands a cylindrical column of ice in front of her, Liling flicked her hands rapidly sending off disks of ice at one of the tanks wheels, more ice disks hit the tank until the wheels snapped off.
Katara and Liling continued to use their Waterbending to create ice that stopped the tanks moving forward. Liling smiled at Katara knowing that the watertribe girl is improving fast.
'If Katara finds a master she will be an amazing waterbender.' Liling thought
Moments later more tanks were coming in way too many for the girls to Waterbend fending them off.
Aang swooped in defending the girls from the fire blasts being launched at them, but they were quickly becoming overwhelmed. Liling tighten her fists and bended more ice to fend some off.
"Appa!" Aang exclaimed as the sky bison landed in front of them tossing two tanks away with his head.
Aang, Katara and Liling quickly ran up Appa's tail and leapt into his saddle, the sky bison taking off as seconds later.
"They're still coming!" Liling stated slightly panicking the teens looked down incoming troops and tanks, "Where's Sokka with that balloon!? He better come here if not were finished!"
The trio hopped from Appa's saddle when he landed on one of the temple's balcony overlooking the army.
"We're out of bombs!" Teo said anxiously as he wheeled over to the three.
"Come on, Sokka." Katara muttered urgently as she looked at the approaching troops, her hands clasped to her chest, "Where's that war balloon?!"
"Sokka please be here…" Liling muttered
"He did it!"
Katara turned when she heard Aang's shout and looked over, her blue eyes widening in awe as she watched Sokka and Teo's father direct a giant war balloon with three huge bombs hanging from it towards the invaders.
"The soldiers aren't attacking them?" Teo questioned.
"It's the insignia that's why they think that balloon is on their side." Liling explained. She watched as the balloon dropped the giant slime bombs taking a few tanks down.
Aang, Liling, Katara and Teo looked over the edge of the balcony at the Fire Nation army approaching as the war balloon flew away from the temple. Suddenly a huge explosion went off suddenly, throwing up a massive cloud of smoke and heat.
Liling yelped the smoke flew up towards them followed by a brief wave of heat.
"Look!" Aang exclaimed as the smoke cleared he pointed towards the retreating Fire Nation soldiers, "They're retreating!"
The crowd of Earth Kingdom refugees cheered behind them.
"We're going down!" Sokka shouted as the balloon suddenly sailed past the balcony, heading straight for the ground.
"No, Sokka! Hold on!" Katara shouted and Aang jumped onto his glider then flew towards the two in the rapidly falling war balloon, leaving Teo, Liling and Katara to watch worriedly from the balcony.
"Get ready!" Sokka called out to Teo's father as he finished tying a rope to the end of his boomerang and began swinging it in a circle as Aang flew towards them.
Aang circled around the war balloon once and Sokka threw his boomerang towards Aang when he came around the front again, the boomerang latching onto the back of the glider near Aang's feet. The mechanist grabbed Sokka and he screamed when Aang pulled them from the basket as he flew back up to the temple, leaving the war balloon to crash to the ground at the bottom of the mountains.
"You know what? I'm really glad you guys all live here now." Aang said as he smiled at Teo and his father as they stood outside the temple with the sun setting in front of them.
Liling smiled standing beside Katara as Aang picked up a hermit crab from the ground lightly touching its shell with his finger.
"I realized, it's like the hermit crab." Aang continued as he smiled at the little hermit crab in his hands, "Maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home. And now you protect each other."
"That means a lot," Teo stated gratefully as he smiled at Aang. "Coming from you."
"Aang, you were right about air power." Sokka said as he grinned widely and pointed at the sky, "As long as we got skies, we'll have the Fire Nation on the run!"
The crowd cheered at Sokka's comment.
No one noticed Teo's father turn slightly away from the cheering crowd and look down at the ground despondently.
War Minister Qin smirked as he watched one of his soldiers using his firebending to get the balloon working.
"This defeat is the gateway to many victories." The man stated as he folded his hands in front of him, watching gleefully as one of the soldiers began inflating the balloon with Firebending, the Fire Nation insignia showing.
Hours later it was nighttime, the small group decided to rest for the night to travel the next day, Liling tossed and turned in her bed but couldn't sleep she let out a sigh getting up she glanced at Aang sleeping peacefully, she gently pulled his sheets up covering him. She looked at Sokka and Katara fully asleep.
Liling walked out of the room going outside, she stared at the moon glowing softly.
"Soon...very soon i'll tell them." Liling muttered softly.
Thats the end of this chapter! Please leave a review!