Woah, almost missed my deadline D: cant go back to old habits now. Im starting school and working 2 jobs now to forgive me if i dont update early in the day.
Anyways, this chapter has more wacky hijinks then epic battles. But hopefully youll all enjoy it nonetheless.
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Chapter 19: Sneak Attack!
"Kill the Spirit! Kill the Spirit!"
After ramming the door for nearly fifteen minutes, the villagers finally busted it wide open. They cheered triumphantly at first but were quickly silenced when they saw the inside of the castle. Everything was dark and empty and had an weird eerie feeling to it. The only thing they could see was a pile of oddly arranged furniture and knick knacks which sat solitary in the middle of the room.
"Careful everyone." Jet said taking out his swords. "Something's not right here."
Cautiously, the villagers entered the castle and looked around the pitch black room, walking in between the furniture pile. Occasionally they would jump upon hearing a clanking noise and became increasingly paranoid the further in they walked.
"This place gives me the creeps." Smellerbee said holding out her knife.
"Shh." Longshot put a finger to his lips before aiming his bow in every possible direction.
"Well it does!" Smellerbee said, her voice cracking slightly.
"Shut it Smellerbee!" Sneers said nervously pointing his spear ten feet in front of him.
As they continued walking further into the castle, the furniture items seemed to be moving along with them. Soon, they were surrounded by the items in the pitch blackness. The only light source they could see came from a small candelabra that sat on a table.
"Jet, I don't like this…" Meng said nervously clutching her shovel as she looked up at the large wardrobe. "Maybe we should go back home."
"Stop whimpering you coward." Jet said nastily to her. "And hand me that candlestick."
Cautiously, Meng approached the small table the candelabra sat on and picked it up. She handed it to Jet who used it to try to see further into the hall.
"Hey there Jet." said a voice.
Jet nearly jumped out of his skin as he turned quickly around. "Who said that?" He then felt something tap his shoulder and turned around to see the candelabra looking back at him.
"Feel the burn!" Sokka then jammed his candles straight onto Jet's hand. Jet let out a painful scream and dropped Sokka along with his swords. The candelabra leaped down and ran past the confused and frightened villagers before jumping back onto a table.
"Alright...NOW!"
Suddenly, all the lights in the castle came on and the furniture items sprang to life, hurling themselves at the villagers. Taken off guard, the villagers started getting pummeled by pans, mops, coat racks, utensils, rugs, mugs and cabinets. Everything from the largest wardrobe to the smallest fork was fighting with all their might.
"What is this madness?" Jet said looking around at all the commotion.
"Madness?" said a voice behind him. Jet then turned to see Sokka standing on top of a cabinet grinning down at him. "THIS...IS...PAYBACK!!!" he yelled before jumping off the top shelf and did a elbow drop right onto Jet's confused and flabbergasted face.
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Back at the village, Aang had finally finished dragging pieces of wood into the machine's boiler and was now powering it up by blowing air onto the kindle. With each puff, the fire grew larger till the machine was fully powered and operational.
"Yes!" Aang cheered as he saw the roaring fire. Jumping onto the seat, he reached up and pulled on the chord which made it go forward. "Here we go!"
As the machine started making its way down the hill, Hakoda was finally able to free himself from the ropes after finding one of his old fork/spoon/butter knife gadgets laying under a table.
"I'm free!" he said happily standing up as he rubbed his wrist. "Alright Katara, its your turn. Hold still."
"Wait." Katara said, her ears perking up. "What's that noise?" Hearing the loud whistling noise as well, Hakoda rushed over to the window.
"What the heck?" he said as he spotted his wood chopping machine rolling down the hill. Seeing that it was fully operational and coming at them at full speed, he rushed back to Katara and used his gadget utensils to cut her loose.
"Katara look out!" he said grabbing her arm as they leap over a work table. They managed to pull it down just as the wood chopping machine hacked its way through the door before falling down the stairs and imploding upon itself.
Cautiously, Katara and Hakoda looked over the table and saw the heaping pile of scrap that was once the machine. The only thing left intact was Aang, who was hanging casually from a loose coil and looking with mild surprise over the scene.
"Hey Katara, Mr. Hakoda, you guys have got to try this thing!" he said enthusiastically. "It works great!"
"Yeah, I'm sure it did." Hakoda said picking up a smoking gear before it broke in two.
Katara then rushed forward and picked Aang up off the coil before running up the stairs. "We haven't a moment to lose Aang. Zuko's in trouble and we have to help him. " Opening up the stables, Katara dragged Appa out and hopped onto his back.
"Katara aren't you missing something?" Aang asked motioning to her side.
"Oh no, my pouch!" Katara shouted in a panic, her hand flying to her side. "Jet's goon's must have taken it with them!"
"Looking for this?" she then saw her father hold up her water pouch as he walked up to Appa. "I swiped when those guys grabbed me. I'll give it back to you, but only if I can come too."
"Dad no!" Katara said. "It's too dangerous and your still hurt."
"I lost you once, I'm not losing you again." he said determinedly. Realizing she had no choice, Katara extended her hand to Hakoda and helped lift him onto Appa. With a snap of the reigns, Appa flew up into the air and headed as fast as he could toward the castle.
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Up at the palace, the battle was raging on. Despite their best efforts, the villagers continued to get beat down by the castle servants who overwhelmed them in both strength and numbers. In one corner, a man was being hit relentless with a frying pan while in another corner, two of the coat racks had ripped down a large drape and were using it fling people out the windows. And in yet another corner, a group of mugs had lined up and were now flinging tomatoes at anyone who crossed their path.
One of their targets was the village baker, who was bombarded and completely covered in rotten tomato pulp. As he tried to hit the mugs with his rolling pin, he bumped into Iroh's tea cart and was surprised to see the old teapot smiling warming up at him.
"You look like you could use a nice cup of tea." Iroh said happily. "Care for some?"
"Oh, um…thank you." he said awkwardly. "Where's the cup?"
"Oh you won't be needing one." Iroh said coyly. He then inhaled deeply and with all his might, blew hot scalding tea out his spout. The baker shouted in pain as he was covered in the hot beverage and ran blindly out the front doors where he fell clumsily down the stairs.
"Take that you scurvy scum!" he shouted out the door as he turned around to the butcher as he was fighting and said "You there! You look like you could use a nice cup of tea…"
On the other side of the room, at least five villagers were putting up one hell of a fight against Toph. Despite being blind, the large wardrobe was a fierce fighter and tough as nails. With one sweeping motion, she was able to nail one villager in the jaw with her drawer and smacked another upside the head with her doors.
"Hey blockheads, watch this!" Toph yelled out.
She then made her way up the stairs and did a belly flop onto the crowd, crushing at least two guys beneath her. Long Shot tried taking down Toph with his arrows but was knocked over at the last minute by Momo, who was trying to fly into the air but instead kept hurling himself at different villagers, knocking them out in the process.
While this went on, Jet, Meng and the a small group of his fighters hid near the bottom of the stairs watching as their men were getting defeated.
"This is crazy!" Sneers said. "We're getting our butts whooped by furniture!"
"How are we suppose to kill the Spirit with these guys around?" ask Smellerbee.
As they continued to watch the others put up a fight, Jet noticed that none were watching the stairs and the path to it was clear.
"Enough of this." Jet said angrily grabbing Meng by the sleeve. "I didn't come all this way just to play with kitchen utensils. Follow me." He then waited till the way was clear before dragging Meng through the crowd and up the grand staircase. The others shortly followed after ducking past the large wardrobe which was body slamming onto everyone.
Upon reaching the top, Jet found the hall that lead to the West Wing and got out his bow and arrow. "Alright…I'm going in to find the Spirit. You guys stand guard and make sure no one enters this hallway." Jet commanded as he stepped into the dark hall. "Shouldn't be long before I have this things head on my mantle."
"You got it Jet!" said The Duke as he took out his spear.
As all the fighters readied their weapons and prepared to stand alertly at the doors, Meng quietly snuck away to chase after Jet.
"Jet please!" Meng pleaded grabbing onto his arm once she caught up. "You don't have to do all this for Katara! You can find another girl in the village to marry…someone who actually loves you back and wants to marry you-"
"You think this is about love!?" Jet yelled fiercely causing her to back away. "This is about getting what I want! What I deserve! And I'm not letting anything or anyone stop me! Now go guard the hallway with the others."
"But Jet this whole thing is getting out of hand! And anway, I-"
Jet then cut her off by smacking her hard across the face "I told you not to question me! Now do what I say and GUARD THIS HALLWAY!" he barked at her before turning and running at full speed down the hall, leaving a stunned and heartbroken Meng holding her face.
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Back at the battle, more and more of the villagers were beginning to retreat back outside the castle, where it began raining heavily. Some of the others however continued to say and tried putting up a fight. One in particular, the town candlestick maker, had grabbed a torch and started thrusting it at the servants. He burned a few but luckily a lot of the servants managed to run away before becoming seriously hurt. The candlestick maker then spotted Sokka from across the room as he was setting fire to the other villagers clothes.
"Dance big boy, dance!" Sokka said after a setting a mans shoes on fire.
"Hey candle stick!" yelled the villager. "Prepare to meet your maker."
Sokka turned around and went pale as the candle stick maker charged forward waving his large fiery torch. He immediatly tried running away by weaving in between people but ended up getting kicked into a corner. The candle stick maker soon caught up with Sokka and grinned evilly down at him.
"Heh heh, nowhere to run candle stick." he chuckled to himself as he moved closer with the torch.
"Look can't we work something out?" Sokka said nervously, his voice cracking. He could feel the wax from his candles start to melt and started hyperventilating in fear.
"He's not a candlestick!" yelled a female voice.
The candlestick maker looked up in confusion and gazed around in search of the voice. Out of sight at the top of the staircase was Suki, who was holding a pair of scissors and wearing a small warrior helmet.
"He's a candleabra!" she said raising her scissors.
Jumping onto the banister, she slid down with the scissors pointed forward and nailed the candlestick maker right in the butt. The man yelled loudly and dropping his torch as he clutched his bottom in pain. He then ran outside with the other villagers as Suki grabbed a wet rag and threw it over the torch, putting its light out.
"And stay out you big ugly…fat head!" Suki yelled after him. She then felt someone tackle her from behind and turn to see Sokka hugging her.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he shouted over and over as he squeezed her tightly.
Blushing profusely, Suki reluctantly shoved him off and handed him the end of a rope. "We're not out of the woods yet. Take this and follow me."
Pulling back on the rope from both sides, Sokka and Suki rushed at the remaining villagers and snagged them all around the ankles. They were then flung forward and toppled over each other. Sokka and Suki then doubled back around and ran towards the villagers that lingered around the doorway, causing them to trip and fall down the stairs.
"Alright! Rope swinging slice!" Sokka shouted jumping triumphantly in the air. "Was that all of them?"
"Almost. I believe Ty lee is trying to round up the last of them." Suki said.
And sure enough, Ty Lee was hopping in between the last remaining villagers, playfully jumping off their heads and shoulders as they slammed into each other trying to catch her. She then jumped onto the ground and onto Momo as they raced toward the kitchen at full speed. All the villagers followed and grinned as they spotted the feather duster and footstool trapped in front of a stove.
"Wait!" Ty lee shouted before they could grab her. "You know…you guys are kind of cute." she said batting her lashes at them. "Specially you there with the big shiny sword."
The large villager with the sword actually blushed and rubbed the back of his head bashfully "Why, thank you." he said smiling till the other villagers glared back at him.
Then at the last second, Ty lee and Momo jumped on top of the stove which came to life. Haru turned on all his knobs and dials at full power, causing him to erupt into a monstrous inferno of fire. The villagers were so terrified they turned and ran straight back out the kitchen doors and out of the castle.
"That'll teach ya to mess with my sweet- I mean, Ty lee" Haru said quickly correcting himself.
Ty lee giggled and rubbed up affectionately next to him. "Thank you Haru."
Haru blushed "No problem at all Ty Lee."
Watching as the last villager stumbled off into the forest, the servants shut the door and erupted into cheers of victory.
"Yes we did it!" Toph shouted. "We kicked their butts back to loser land!"
"Three cheers!" Iroh shouted. "Hip hip! Hooray! Hip Hip!"
"HOORAY!" all the servants shouted together. "Hip hip!"
"Hooray!" Suki shouted proudly. She then felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to see Sokka, who placed his candles on both her shoulders and leaned toward her. But before he could make a move, Suki beat him to the punch and grabbed his face as she kissed both his cheeks. The flames on Sokka's candles lit up brightly and he could feel his wax head actually melt a bit.
They were all still cheering and laughing when the front doors suddenly burst open, revealing a soaked Appa and a worried looking Katara.
"Katara!?" Sokka and Suki said in surprise.
"Guys you have to help!" Katara said desperately as she jumped off Appa. "I need to get to the West Wing. Zuko's in trouble!"
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Stay tuned for the real epic battle coming next week!
And in case anyone was wondering...yes. I did use that one bit from 300...Im so lame :p....