4: "Without a Plan, but with a Strategy; Part 4"
The plan was coming together; much to Youta's relief. He wasn't sure how well they would be able to come up with a plan. He had faith in everyone in the group… as individuals. But he was more afraid of them working together as a group. Ilah, Fei, and Guan had worked together on the tunnels with Ilah and Fei making them and Guan mapping them out. However that was about their extent of experience with each other. And making tunnels was a lot different than planning an attack on a well-trained nation's capital. There was also Suzu, whom no one else had met before this. The unfamiliarity mixed with their conflicting personalities just seemed like a recipe for disaster, however it was going perfect.
"I think we should attack the guard towers first," said Ilah.
"No, we should hit the barracks first," said Guan. "Most of them will be asleep. It would be smarter to hit them when they're down, not when they're aiming fireballs at our heads."
Well, it was going perfectly.
"If we don't get the towers first, they'll see us coming and already be ready," argued Ilah, her voice rising with every word.
"We'll be underground," Guan pointed out. "Unless they suddenly acquired x-ray vision, they won't see us."
"I'm going to have to agree with my brother on this one," agreed Fei. "We should hit a larger group of them first. Besides, they shouldn't even notice us… Unless they have some sort of earthbender technology."
"I don't think there is such a thing," Suzu said.
"So we should hit the barracks first and then the guard towers along the way to the castle," Guan said.
"Yeah, but if do the barracks first, the guards in the towers can warn the Fire Lord and he can go into hiding," said Ilah. "We should hit the towers first."
"There are a lot of towers though," said Suzu.
"Like how many?" asked Fei.
"Well, there are the ones along the entrance from the docks, protecting the East. Then there are guard towers scattered around the city along the outer part of the crater and then the posts along the walls and then even more posts surrounding the castle," Suzu began to list off. "The Capital is one of the most well-protected cities in the Nation, due to it being the Capital."
Ilah suddenly became very quiet, though her expression wasn't one of defeat. She just looked very angry, though she didn't show it aside from her expression. She looked as if she wanted to shout and throw a tantrum for Suzu poking holes in her plan. Instead she just remained quiet and angry-faced. Guan, however, looked triumphant.
"So we attack the barracks," he said.
"There are quite a few barracks," Suzu pointed out. "You're going to need a lot of benders to deal with most of them."
"I think you underestimate our numbers," Guan said proudly.
"That means the rest of the Capital will too," Youta pointed out.
The plan had finally come together. Now all they had to do was wait.
Not much of a chapter as it could have been added to the last one. Good news however, next chapter should feature fighting and some major bending; and not just some lighter-fingers via Suzu. I really just want to get into the action, but it wasn't going to happen this chapter. Again sorry, but I promise a much longer chapter next time.
And actually, because this was so short, I will try to update again this week around Wednesday or Thursday.