Fight21: Through the North Wind
It was night. Small groups of people were sitting on benches in front of a small structure without walls. A fire was burning in the middle of the gathering. Some children were also sitting on the were all listening intently...
"So travelers, the next time you think you hear a strange large bird talking, take a closer look... it might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man! A member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it!" The storyteller concluded.
"Aren't airbender stories the best?" Aang asked his friends with a smile.
"Was it realistic? Was that how it was back then?" Katara wondered.
"I laugh at gravity all the time. Haha! Gravity." The child laughed. Suddenly a pair of hands holding an open hat appeared in front of Sokka. The hands shook the hat and the jingle of coins was heard. The meaning could not be any clearer. Sokka searched his coat, but when he opened his hands there is only some lint and a live bug. He apologised. The storyteller called them cheapskates. So Chenlian showed him four copper coins. She put them in the hat. He smiled at her. She sweetly smiled back. But unknowingly to everyone else, she had taken a silver piece from the hat. She showed it to the others who giggled behind their hands. She had wanted to thank him for his story... and teach him how to properly talk to a customer. Aang ran over to the storyteller who was facing another audience member, seeking more donations. The excited boy thanked him for the story.
"Tell it to the cap, boy!" The older man retorted, showing him the cap again without looking at him. A copper piece fell on the ground, which Momo picked up and deposited back in the cap. The storyteller patted the pet, apparently thinking that it was the child who had dropped the coin and the cute animal had put it in.
"Aw, much obliged little bat thing!"
"It means a lot to hear airbender stories. It must have been hundred years ago your great grandpa met them." The little monk continued as the lemur climbed back on his shoulder.
"What are you prattling about child? Great grand-pappy saw the air walkers last week!" The storyteller gestured to a very old man who was sitting down, waving at Aang. The boy was shocked.
The next day they were flying above puffy white clouds and snow capped mountains to the Northern Air Temple. The airbender told them they were almost there, and that was where the championships for sky bison polo had taken place. He was getting more and more excited by the minute and Katara seemed to have caught his enthusiasm by the way she asked her brother whether he really thought they would find airbenders.
"You want me to be like you, or totally honest?"
"Are you saying I'm a liar?" The brown haired girl folded her arms.
"I'm saying you're an optimist. Same thing basically."
"Now, now, Sokka. You know she doesn't mean any harm. But well, false hopes hurt people nonetheless. The question is whether is hurts more than the bare truth or not." Chenlian's opinion was quite clear from this. When you wanted to escape reality, you lied to yourself. Like Sokka, she didn't believe any other airbender could have survived this century of war. And she preferred the cold truth to any false hope. Her thoughts were interrupted by the Avatar.
"Hey guys, look at this!" He exclaimed smiling and pointing at the Northern Air Temple that sat atop a sheer peak – similar to its sister temple down south – and around which people or things were flying... Smoke was rising in lazy pillars from a couple places among the spires. Aang's smile turned into a slight frown.
"Huh! They really are airbenders!" Katara yelled happily.
"No, they're not." He contradicted her, leaning back and folding his arms with a cross expression.
"What do you mean they're not? Those guys are flying!" Sokka pointed at them.
"Gliding maybe, but not flying. You can tell by the way they move. They're not airbending. Those people have no spirit." However, just as he was finishing his sentence, the siblings almost got their heads taken off by a glider as it passed over them. Its pilot laughed at the good fright he had given them. It was a teenage boy wearing amber goggles and seated in a glider built on a wheelchair. He laughed again and wheeled his craft around for another pass at Appa.
"I don't know, Aang. That kid seems pretty spirited!" The waterbender voiced her opinion. The wheelchair glider made another pass. Aang and the teen looked at each other challengingly. The Avatar jumped into the air, unfolded his glider and took off. Chenlian, who they had rarely seen beaming like this, had been about to do the same when Sokka stopped her and made her crash back in the was she thinking?! Well, she just wanted to compete with them.
"What?! But you don't have any glider!"
"I have my firebending."
"Are you crazy?! You want a repeat of the incident with Jet?!"
"Why not? I don't really care. I can defend myself and it's better to tell them now than later, isn't it?" The firebender didn't understand why they were so against it. The siblings looked at each other. Sokka hit his own forehead. Even though she was so smart, she could be so stupid, or more like careless, jaded.
"Chenlian, we are your friends, aren't we?" Katara began gently.
"Of course."
"Then please, can you listen to us this time? We just don't want to see you get treated like this again. It is really painful. You might not care but we do because we care about you. To see you get hated, threatened, and attacked like this... we don't want that. What would you feel if what happened to you back then happened to us?" The waterbender explained, her tone soft and warm. Her friend closed her eyes for a time.
"I don't want that." She affirmed strongly.
"See? Then give us a little time. You can rely on us."
"Yeah, don't worry. We'll handle things. Just wait a bit." Sokka concurred. The other gliders were now flying in formation around Appa who reared in surprise as one passed just before his nose. "Anyway, we better find some solid ground before it finds us!" The bison landed on one of the temple's outer terraces. They looked up at the two flyers engaged in a game of tag in the north sky. The most skilful, who could do the most tricks, would obviously win.
"Go Teo! Show that bald kid how it's done!" A member of the very young audience cheered for the representative of the current inhabitants of the Air Temple. The pursuit continued. They twirled around each other in a controlled dive like low flying swallows among the buildings and clouds.
"Hey there! You're pretty good." Teo complimented the airbender.
"Yeah, I know. But I can do more than fancy gliding!" Aang replied coolly. He broke his descent, turned and shot straight upward. He came back to the one of temple's towers, let go of his glider, and started running along the side of the tower. Then he produced an air scooter and rode it along the outside wall of the tower, his glider still running along side of him. He let the air scooter die and jumped back on his glider and soared back into the sky.
"Wow! I don't think I can do that! But here's a good one..." Teo released a cord on his glider and a cylinder on the back of his glider began to leave a trail of thick grey smoke. The boy manipulated his glider through loops and arcs, leaving the grey trail behind him. Once he was done, he had made a picture of Aang's face, arrow and all, with a sour expression. The crowd laughed. The Avatar looked at it with the very same expression on his face. Teo came up to him and asked him what he thought.
"It's great." The monk commented drily before landing next to his friends and folding his glider. Teo landed his glider right behind, and skidded with the help of his hand brakes. Children detached the glider from his wheelchair. He then wheeled over to Aang and his friends.
"Hey! You're a REAL airbender! You must be the Avatar! That's amazing! I, I, I've heard stories about you."
"Thanks." Aang looked embarrassed but happy. But Sokka was more impressed by the boy's glider chair. Two girls brought the glider setup back for him to inspect.
"If you think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my dad designed." And Teo led them inside. When they reached the main chamber, it was quite unlike that seen in The Southern Air Temple. This room was dominated by a jumble of steam-powered machinery with many wheels, gears and pipes. It was not pretty. A beautiful statue of an airbender monk was in a recessed portico in the wall, but it too seemed dirty and befouled as did the rest of the room. Shafts of sunlight did filter in, but the steam and dust made everything murky.
"Wow!" Sokka commented.
"Yeah, my dad is the mastermind behind this whole place! Everything's powered by hot air. It even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift when we're gliding." Teo proudly explained. As he spoke, a woman walked over and went in a cage. She pulled a rope and steam power lifted the cage up to a higher level where she exited.
"This place is unbelievable." Aang said softly.
"Yeah, it's great isn't it?"
"No, just unbelievable." The airbender walked away, clearly saddened by what he had seen.
"Aang used to come here a long time ago. I think he's a little shocked it's so... different." Katara attempted a follow up.
"So better!" Her brother popped in. Katara joined Aang before a once beautiful mural, now it was pierced through and through by pipes.
"This is supposed to be the history of my people." He muttered dejectedly. Katara put a comforting hand on his shoulder, but he walked away over to the huge statue of a flying bison that once had a fountain attached to it. Now the fountain basin was full of a green industrial looking substance that bubbled and spirited. The statue then emitted a cloud of black smoke from its mouth, scaring and disgusting Aang.
"I'm sure some parts of the temple are still the same." The waterbender attempted to reassure him.
Later, the youths were walking – or driving – across a narrow, suspended pathway from the main temple to a satellite temple building. They paused in the main courtyard, which looked untouched. Airbender statues still resided here.
"It's nice to see even one part of the temple that isn't ruined." Aang said, relieved. He and Katara were staring up at a huge recessed statue of an airbender monk. Suddenly a voice cried a warning. The statue disintegrated as a wrecking ball smashed through it. The five protected themselves from the flying debris and dust. They all coughed. As the dust settled, many figures could be seen through the hole the wrecking ball just created. A middle aged man with a bald head and weird patches of pointy hair on either side of his head walked forward. His right eye has a red monocle. He was wearing a green tunic mostly covered by the white smock or apron of an artisan.
"What the doodle! Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse!"
"Do you know what you did? You just destroyed something sacred! For a stupid bathhouse!" The Avatar raged.
"Well, people around here are starting to stink." The mechanist waved a hand in front of nose suggestively.
"This whole place stinks!" The airbender angrily pointed at the man before striking the ground with his staff, sending a gale back through the hole in the wall, blowing the machine of destruction away to fall into the crevice and crash far below. "This is a sacred temple! You can't treat it this way. I've seen it when the monks were here. I know what it's supposed to be like." He pointed an accusing finger again.
"The monks? But you're 12!" The artificer held his bearded chin skeptically. His son informed him that he was the Avatar and that he used to come here a hundred years ago. Aang became menacing. He wanted to know what he, they, were doing and who said they could be here. The inventor turned away and with many gestures, he told the child about how a long time ago, his people had become refugees after a terrible flood that had taken his wife and badly hurt his infant son, Teo. He needed somewhere to rebuild and he had stumbled across this place, this utterly empty place with, unbelievably, pictures of flying people everywhere. And then he had come across these fan-like contraptions! These gliders, these little light flying machines that gave him the idea to build a new life for his son, in the air! Then everyone would be on equal ground, so to speak! They were just in the process of improving upon what was already here. And after all, wasn't that what nature did? Aang was still unhappy. His water tribe friends were teary eyed behind him and the firebender was listening neutrally, her arms crossed. She did not really disagree with the artificer but she also understood Aang's point of view. She knew how hard it was in such cases to detach yourself emotionally. She also felt a certain distaste for the current appearance of this temple.
"Nature knows where to stop." The Avatar argued.
"I suppose that's true. Unfortunately, progress has a way of getting away from us." The discoverer looked down in some sadness, and lifted his head back up to look at something. "Look at the time!" He showed a set of three candles burning brightly on a stone pedestal. Each of them was neatly separated into different sections. "Come, the pulley system must be oiled before dark." He told a scribe behind him. Sokka approached the candles and asked how he could tell the time from that as the notches all looked the same. "The candle will tell us. Watch." And indeed, after a few seconds, the candle flame snaped four times in a row.
"You put spark powder in the candle!" The water tribe warrior exclaimed.
"Four flashes, so it's exactly four hours past midday, or, as I call it, four o'candle!" The mechanist explained. Sokka laughed. "If you like that, wait till you see my finger safe knife sharpener!" The old man beamed and held up his left hand. Three of the fingers were made of wood. He detached them and tossed them at Sokka. "Only took me three tries to get it right!" The boy screamed after he caught the fingers. That was why Chenlian was content with a good whetstone and good water to sharpen her blades. While Sokka followed the scientist, Teo took the others deep into the Air Temple. He wanted to show them something...
"I just can't get over it. There's not a single thing that's the same."Aang complained again. Teo stopped and scooped up a little black and white striped hermit crab.
"I don't know about that. The Temple might be different, but the creatures that live here are probably direct descendents of the ones that lived here a long time ago." He gave the animal to Katara who played with it a bit.
"You're right. They're kind of keepers of the temples origins." She gave the crab to the airbender who smiled.
"Besides, there's one part of the temple that hasn't changed at all." They arrived before an imposing door dominated in the center by a woodcut comprised of three wooden air symbols protruding from its surface and which are arranged in a triangular pattern. The symbols were attached to tubes that end in two horns near the bottom of the woodcut. The waterbender immediately recognised it. Teo reminded them that since only an airbender could open it, the inside must be completely untouched, just the way the monks left it. He had always wondered what it was like in there. However, Aang did not feel like opening it. He apologised: this was the last part of temple that was the same as it was. He wanted it to stay that way. "I completely understand. I just wanted you to know it was here."
"Thanks." And they returned the way they had come.
Sokka and the mechanist were walking down a dark, narrow stone staircase. They held lanterns that glowed a very dim, pale blue light... so dim that the boy couldn't see. He opened one, certainly hoping to find a way to make it brighter. The jar was packed with fireflies. One escaped.
"Why would you want to use fireflies for light?"
"Hey! Close that up! They'll get loose. Fireflies are a non-flammable light source." They continued, coming to a door whose edges were blocked with some kind of caulk. The inventor felt around the caulk-like insulation, looking for leaks, before turning to Sokka. "Cover your nose and hold your breath." They approached and he slid open a small panel. The inside was all dark.
"Okay, so you brought me all the way down here to see an empty room."
"Wrong. It's filled to the brim with natural gas. Came across it my first time here. Unfortunately, I was carrying a torch at the time. Nearly blew myself and the whole place even more sky high. Thought my eyebrows would never grow back! Anyway, there's a vital problem that needs solving. From time to time we have gas leaks and they're nearly impossible to find."
"So this place is an explosion waiting to happen?" Sokka checked his side of the door for leaks.
"Yes, until I figure out how to locate something I can't see, hear, smell or touch..."
"The wind will carry you. It supports something inside you something even lighter than air, and that something takes over when you fly." Teo told Katara and Chenlian. The girls were standing at the edge of the terrace, holding a glider with both hands. The inventor's son was to her left, Aang behind them to the right with Momo. The firebender had a wide grin on her face while the waterbender looked fearfully at the precipice.
"I've changed my mind. I think I was born without that something." The blue-eyed girl backed away. The young disabled man laughed. It was impossible, everybody had it!
"Spirit." The Avatar stated.
"What?"
"That's the something you're talking about."
"Yeah, I suppose it is." Then after a time, Katara agreed to get into position again. Teo asked the girls whether they were ready.
"No!" The brown-haired girl muttered fearfully.
"Then I'll be going first!" And Chenlian leapt fearlessly. She fell, and soon soared through the clouds. Gliding was certainly very different from propelling herself with jets of fire. You just had to entrust yourself to the wind without a care. And seeing the happy and relaxed expression on her friend's face, Katara was relieved and felt slightly invigorated too. She jumped, still screaming, but soon her screams turned to delight, as she gained control of the craft and began to fly, Teo right with her. They were soon joined by Aang. The waterbender still couldn't believe she was flying. The airbender advised her to make sure to keep her mouth closed so she wouldn't swallow a bug. However, that was exactly what Momo wanted. He flew his mouth open until a bug entered it that he ate tranquilly.
"Teo was right about the air! All I had to do was trust it. Let it carry me." She agreed at last. Aang admitted that even though Teo was not an airbender, he did have the spirit of one. But soon Chenlian tried to make things more interesting by challenging the three of them. Katara did not have the confidence and prefered to simply fly like this but Aang and Teo instantly fell for her provocative smirk. And the contest started...the speed, the difficulty of the figures, the courage when they would dive straight to the ground or the wall or rush at each other and swerving at the last second. All the contestants were cheered on, though of course Teo was still favorite. They competed in this three-way aerial battle in their own unique ways. Teo with its heavily customised glider, Aang with his airbending, and Chenlian... only the Avatar could know. Teo HAD noticed something strange with her movements but was unable to pinpoint it. He could not guess that she was using her firebending to heat the cold air of the northern Earth Kindgom and making it expand instantly at the right moments, and thus propelling herself faster and allowing for sudden breaks or sharp movements. For her friends' sake, she did not want flames to be visible. After all, it was unthinkable that a firebender could travel with the Avatar and become its ally.
Aang landed, soon followed by the inventor's son and Chenlian. He had been thinking. If they wanted to see the inside the Sanctuary, he would be happy to open the door for them. The young disabled was ecstatic, the firebender unsure, given what the Fire Nation had done. However, Aang insisted. Of course, neither said anything but he understood her reluctance. But regardless of her background, she was his friend. And he wanted share part of himself, of his culture, with her, just like he would with Sokka and Katara... who suddenly interrupted them...
"Wait! How do I land this thing? What if I land-" But she was cut off when something entered her mouth. She tried to rasp her throat and cough it back, in vain. "Eh! Blech! Yech! Bug! Bug! That was a bug!"
In his workshop, the mechanist was bending over some plans on his desk while Sokka would knock over some junk in the background even though he had been told not to touch anything. The junk fell on the floor. The old man reassured him. That was an old experiment, that egg had just been part of last week's lunch. Sokka sniffed the air and made a disgusted sound... week old egg smell... They needed to find that egg quick. And so they began crawling on all fours to find the source of the stench.
Aang, Katara, Chenlian and Teo were at the Sanctuary's door once again. The infirm was especially expectant. The monk airbended two jets of air, one from each arm, into the horns at the bottom of the woodcut. The air ran through the tubes and one by one flipped the air symbols from the blue sides to the maroon sides and produced a different music note. The door unlocked.
"How could something that's so small you can't even see it make such a big stink!" Sokka cursed, still crawling around in search of the rotten egg.
"That's the solution to our problem!" The inventor exclaimed all of a sudden. And it seemed the boy had the same idea at the same time. They shifted their position to face each other.
"Yeah! If we put a whole mess of rotten eggs in the cellar where the gas seeps up-"
"The gas will mix with the smell of rotten eggs-"
"Then, if there's a leak-"
"You smell rotten eggs! Then you just follow your nose to the place where the smell is coming from-"
"And plug up the hole where the gas is escaping!"
"You're a genius!" The two praised and congratulated each other at the same time and threw their arms in the air. Suddenly, a large bell rang. Something was wrong, the old man dashed out of the room.
Aang, Katara, Chenlian and Teo walked, aghast, in the Air Temple Sanctuary. It was filled with evil looking war machines... and a red tent with a black Fire Nation symbol.
"This is a nightmare." The consternated airbender voiced everyone's thoughts.
"You don't understand." The mechanist arrived right behind them.
"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation!" Aang pointed an angry and accusing finger at him. Sokka, despite being quite close to the discoverer, was equally furious, and so was the man's own son, who demanded an explanation now. Chenlian wasn't really angry, just sad and apologetic. As part of the Fire Nation, it was pretty evident to her how things could have come to this.
"It was about a year after we moved here." The mechanist began, his head hung in humiliation. "Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this tale. 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. You must understand, I did this for you!" He pleaded. But his son turned both his head and his wheelchair away. It was always very difficult for children to understand their parents' hearts.
The inventor returned to his office. He was conducting another experiment with a balloon driven by a candle in a basket below it... and two eggs in the basket with happy faces drawn on them. Carried by the air heated by the candle, the balloon rose toward the ceiling. It was then that Aang, Teo and Chenlian entered. They wanted to know when they would be coming. He informed them that the emissary would be coming soon, very soon. The girl and the Avatar tried to convince him not to give them more weapons but he disputed that if he didn't, they would destroy this place. And as if on cue, the balloon that had floated over to them caught fire and fell on the floor, where the mechanist smothered the flames with a towel.
"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Teo also attempted to persuade him.
"I need some time to think" The old man softened before his son. After a pause, a little tinkling bell was heard. "You need to leave! Go!" But his son adamantly refused, his bright eyes narrowed in anger. "Then hide, quickly!" His father shooed them away before pulling a lever. A trap door in the floor opened and steam billowed. A man in Fire Nation garb rose through the opening.
"You know better than to keep me waiting. Give me what you owe us so I can be on my way." He approached the mechanist who looked down. "Well? Is there a problem?" He asked more threateningly.
"No, right this way." The inventor motionned toward the door. In the end, he did not have the courage to speak out. The emissary began to move to the door, but it was shut by a blast of air from Aang who landed in front of the closed door.
"The deal's off!" The airbender said in a controlled voice despite his obvious anger. The envoy immediately recognised him as the Avatar. The creator told him not to get involved but it was already too late. The Fire Nation man warned that if he didn't get what he had come for then this place would be burned to rubble. "Get out of here! You're leaving empty handed!" Aang struck him across the cheek with an air whip.
"Then the destruction of this temple will be on your head." The envoy pointed at Aang accusingly.
"No, I don't think so." Chenlian stepped inbetween them without facing either. "You won't be able to make a single scratch on this temple... because we will protect it. We will free this temple from your yoke!" The young girl glared fiercely at the emissary. "Now go back, if you don't want us to capture you." She assumed a fighting stance. The man straightened himself and walked to the elevator his nose in the air. Once he had gone back down, Aang closed the trap door with a blast of air.
The four teens and Teo had gathered in the middle of a causeway to discuss the current situation...
"This is bad! Very bad!" Sokka commented after they had been filled in. His sister was panicking. How could they possibly keep them all away?Aang pointed at the sky.
"We have something they don't. Air power! We control the sky. That' something the Fire Nation can't do. We can win!" He said confidently. It was then the mechanist came in. He wanted to help. The Avatar smiled. They would need it.
"Of course I'll be helping too, but there's something you must know about me first. Right, Aang, Sokka, Katara?" Chenlian said meaningfully. The three looked at each other and protectively stood next to her while the airbender stepped forward a little to explain.
"Right... there's something we must tell you, but you must not get scared. We trust her no matter what. She's helped us countless times..."
"Aang..." Chenlian sighed. He was clearly stalling for fear of their reaction. "What he's trying to tell you... is that I'm a firebender." She produced a little flame. "And as you can see, I'm also their friends. I'm hunted down and considered a traitor by the Fire Nation. Well, it's true I want to overthrow the Fire Lord and change the Fire Nation from within. I want to end this war and restore balance and truth. My grandfather's a master firebender but also a deserter. My parents were exiled and killed for having opposed the Fire Lord. My power will definitely be useful. So I will help even if you don't want me to." She declared again, tall, proud, and confident. However, by the end of her speech, it almost looked and sounded as if she was defying them to try to stop her and lock her up. And that made her friends chide her again. It was because she was always like that that people misunderstood her. Giving people the impression that she was picking a fight was NOT the best way to make them accept her and trust her. "What are you saying? There's no way a firebender like me would be trusted and accepted anyway. At least not from the get-go. Isn't it better to make things clear from the start? And we aren't planning on staying long anyway." The mahogany-haired girl replied as if stating the obvious, again assuming and deciding things on her own. There was a small silence during which all eyes were turned to her and she was looking back at her comrades cluelessly. She was really a fighter through and through. Not only because of her almost constant (sometimes voluntary, usually (half?)unconsciously) challenging attitude she had with anyone and everyone. She wasn't the type to give tearful apologies and blame herself endlessly because of what her country had done. It was useless to cry over the past. She could only take steps so that what happened before won't happen again. If there was something she could do then she would do it no matter what. That was all there was to it. Suddenly, the silence was broken by Teo.
"I trust you. And I accept you."
"What?! No way!" The four other youths turned to him, their faces painted with great surprise.
"The Avatar knows about you. And so do Sokka and Katara. They trust you and have accepted you. And so I will too."
"Besides, you seem to have been together for quite some time. If you had really wanted to betray Aang, you should have had more than one chance to do so." The inventor put a hand on his son's shoulder. They both had such kind and sympathetic smiles when looking at her. After a time, Chenlian looked down and smiled in good-hearted self-derision.
"Maybe you should be more distrusting..." And as she looked up to them her smile became so bright and sincere and warm, a smile that conveyed her thanks and feelings more keenly than words ever would. A smile that caught Teo unprepared and made him blush. It was a thing to see her radiant smile when she was having fun gliding; it was another to see it like this. He had not expected that.
Then they gathered everyone and told them about Chenlian's circumstances. They were much warier and reluctant to let a firebender roam free in their midst, even if she was the Avatar's companion. A number had lost family, land, or both, to the Fire Nation. It was quite difficult, but with the father and son's help, they somehow managed to convince them that she posed no threat to them. On the contrary they could use her to fight fire with fire. And so she was allowed freedom under careful watch. And all went to prepare for the battle... until those who had chosen to fight were called to the mechanist's office. They had finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka. The two called each other a genius and thanked each other. Aang and Katara were looking at each other strangely over this self-congratulatory exchange. Chenlian was waiting patiently (or ignoring them). The 'geniuses' explained that the problem with the old war balloon was you could get it airborne, but once you did, it just kept going. He demonstrated with a model that went up and hit the ceiling. They 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." The waterbender told the little monk. Aang, Teo and Katara laughed. Even Chenlian was amused. Well, she had already seen the answer. She was amused at how Sokka was stalling and presenting things for a more dramatic effect. He showed a slightly different model.
"A lid is actually the answer. If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon." He demonstrated by pulling a string connected to the lid that opened and closed it. His sister commented appreciatively that it was actually pretty smart. "Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs. Smoke, slime, fire and-"
"Stink. Never underestimate the power of stink!"
Later, on the lower terrace, many temple residents had come to look out over the edge. A little girl warned everyone the invaders were coming. Everyone was ready but they didn't know where Sokka and the war balloon could be. Aang jumped off Appa and opened his glider as he landed. They would have to start without him. Momo landed on the top of Aang's glider. Teo smiled and put on his goggles. On the terrace that had become a landing strip, two rows of gliders stood ready to launch. Aang and Teo were near the head, along with Chenlian. The glider did ease her flying considerably. They took off. The other inhabitants cheered. The steep mountain side was choked with Fire Nation soldiers climbing up its winding path. Following Aang and Teo, the gliders dived and broke through the clouds, dropping various bombs on the surprised soldiers, while from the head of the line, Chenlian forced the attackers back with a large, powerful, and scorching jet of fire, completely routing them. Many fell off the path into the crevices below because of the bombs or the disorderly retreat.
The Fire Nation soldiers lowered their spears but were bombed by gliders. The Avatar jumped off his glider onto a switchback just above the most advanced part of the infantry column. He created an air scooter, and rode along, causing an avalanche that engulfed a number of soldiers. When he reached the end of the switchback, he killed the air scooter and jumped back onto his glider. Those left started running back down the path. Now that they were on the run, the defenders needed to slime. They soared back to Appa who was floating above the clouds. Katara was handing bombs to the gliders.
Suddenly, several huge spikes shot up through the clouds, narrowly missing the bison. The chained spikes embedded themselves deep into the rock near the Temple. Appa flew hard to avoid the grappling hooks being thrown up all over the place. Heavily armored tracked vehicles were using those hooks to scale the sheer cliff. And before these tanks, bombs had little effect. The airbender stuck his glider staff into the naked rock and pulled out one of the grappling hooks. The tank dropped like a rock, but it fired another grappling hook straight up, narrowly missing Aang. It caught on the rock above, and the tank slammed back into the mountain face and started climbing once again. With a fiery blade, Chenlian melted all the chains as she flew by, making the tanks drop too. Then she turned around to do the same with the second chains. However, the sheer number made it impossible to stop them all while being targeted by fireballs.
They arrived on the small snowy plateau area at the base of the Temple. The firebenders in the turrets started shooting blasts of fire, which the gliders avoided, sometimes barely. More bombs dropped as retaliation, but proved ineffective against the Fire Nation armor. One firebender got slimed right as Aang landed into the center of an advancing platoon of tanks. He blew them away, making them fall upside down, but the central cabins of the vehicles just flipped over and they advanced again. They fired more blasts at the Avatar, who avoided them. Katara, who was surveying the battlefield with Teo, was dispairing? Those things were unstoppable!
"I wouldn't say that. Look!" Teo contradicted her as Chenlian landed before Aang and cut the axles with with arches of fire. "I think I know how they work. I remember my dad tinkering with the counterbalancing system. Something to do with water. Works great, huh?"
"Water? Can you get me close to one?"
"No problem!" Teo swooped and deposited Katara next to the airbender and firebender. She assumed a bending stance, and breathed ice, stopping the vehicle before bending the water within it and making its wheels fall off. She lifted another with a wall of ice and it fell over, broken. The girls had disposed of a number tanks but an equal number was bearing down on them. Aang and Chenlian jumped in front of Katara and batted away or reflected the fire blasts. Appa's massive bulk suddenly landed before them. He roared, and tossed aside the two point tanks with his head. The three benders climbed onto him and the bison took off. They surveyed the battlefield and it was clear that the situation was not good. Broken down tanks dotted the snow, but most were still advancing, now closely supported by infantry formations.
Chenlian leapt again. Since they were out of bombs, Teo, Aang, and Katara had gone down on the terrace for a hasty council. The female firebender was now facing the invaders alone, but that was just what she wanted. This way, she wouldn't have to fear involving her friends. Her eyes glowed like molten gold and red markings appeared on her body. She erected a rampart of fire that advanced onto the invaders, heating the metal of the tanks so much the soldiers fled. The heat distorted the metal and melted it a little, rendering the machines useless. The wall dissipated. However, tanks and soldiers were still marching on the plateau below. It was then that a red war balloon with a Fire Nation symbol appeared. It vaguely resembled a blimp with its removable top and tail fin. The basket contained the coal burning plant that provided the heat for the balloon's air, as well as Sokka and the inventor. Attached to the basket were four huge sacks. The young warrior wondered why the soldiers were shooting at them. The mechanist explained that it was because of the insignia that let them think they were on the same side.
"Then I guess they won't see this coming." The water tribesman cut a rope with a knife and the slime bomb fell. Soon, the three others followed. The slime washed most of the infantry away, but the tanks continued. They reached the next cliff to scale and began to use their grappling hooks. "Oh no! That was the last one!" Sokka remarked, alarmed.
"Wait a second." The old man sniffed the air. "You smell that?" The boy recognised the stench of rotten eggs. They were passing over a crevasse. That was where the gas was escaping. He got an idea. Chenlian was cutting chain after chain and blowing troops away with strong blasts of fire. Sokka started dislodging the coal burning plant, obviously planning to throw it overboard. The inventor tried to stop him as it was their fuel source. However, that was the only bomb they had left. He dropped the furnace into the crevasse.
The temple was suddenly buffeted by a series of enormous, fiery explosions at its base. The furnace had ignited the escaping natural gas. The temple was covered in smoke. When it cleared, the grappling hook chains were dangling in the breeze with nothing attached to them. In the distance, the remaining Fire Nation troops were running back down the mountain. Chenlian stood up. She had immediately and instinctively thrown herself in the snow when she had seen the coal burning plant fall.
"Look! They're retreating!" Aang exclaimed. Everyone cheered. But that didn't last long. The balloon was going down!
"No! Sokka! Hold on!" Katara cried.
Aang and Chenlian sprang into action. Sokka attached a rope to his boomerang and told the old inventor to get ready. As the Avatar flew by, Sokka threw the boomerang that caught on Aang's foot, pulling the two men clear of the falling balloon while Chenlian supported them. As the airbender flew them back up, the firebender looked back at the descending balloon and on a spur of the moment, extended the jets of flames from her feet. They reached the basket that caught fire.
On the main terrace, the monk was surrounded by his friends. Behind him was a circular stone bench on which Katara and some of the black and white hermit crabs were sitting.
"You know what? I'm really glad you guys all live here now. I realized it's like the hermit crab." He picked one up from the stone bench. "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 coming from you." Teo said, touched.
"Aang, you were right about air power." Sokka pointed at the sky. "As long as we've got the skies we'll have the Fire Nation on the run!" At this, everyone cheered again. Everyone but the inventor and Chenlian who looked down, troubled. When they thought of the fallen war balloon, they had a bad feeling, and sincerely hoped that it had burned completely before reaching the ground.
But it was not the case. The flames had been put off as soon as they could be reached, and now, amidst the snow covered trees, a group of Fire Nation soldiers stood around the fallen balloon. True, the basket was over half eaten and ropes had been cut. But not all, and the balloon itself was only blackened on the belly. The soldiers were heating the air inside it, causing it to refill.
"This defeat is the gateway to many victories." The commander smiled darkly, his fingers joined, at the Fire Nation insigna on the side of the balloon.