Courage conquers cities.
But an ass laden with gold will do it faster and without losing any men.
***
"Everybody out!" Azula and I ordered in unison. Then we glanced at each other, and... the girl gave a slight nod, apparently remembering that she herself had "put" my humble self "in command." And I suppose I'd proven my competence by now.
"Ty Lee, Suki—you're on the kid's companions, if he brought them along. If not, wait until he's distracted by us, pick your moment, and hit him. Lethally."
"Got it!" the warriors replied in unison.
"Zuko, how are you doing with lightning?"
"Still haven't mastered it," the guy admitted, pursing his lips in frustration.
"Then cover us from mid-range. Burn the air, heat the ground, boil away the moisture, do whatever you want, but he does not get past you!"
"I'll do it!" the prince nodded firmly.
"Mai, cover him and keep up harassing fire."
"..." She simply nodded.
"Everyone else—we hit him with lightning and blow him up," that last part was mostly Blast's department.
"Hey, what am I supposed to do?" Toph demanded indignantly.
"Aang can earthbend. Stay with us and don't let him burrow underground. We may also need you to throw up a dome around us in a hurry. Be ready."
"Yup..."
And so our merry little mob spilled out of the armored "worm" and spread out. And we couldn't have timed it better. The little flying bastard, having landed his bison on the wall, dropped onto the drill riding a massive chunk of earth, clearly cobbled together from a dozen or so of the earthbenders' standard projectiles. What's more, he'd even shaped it into a wedge... and the air currents around the projectile were behaving somehow... strangely.
"Blast!"
"Got it," the mercenary rumbled and glared at the boulder. It was engulfed in flames for an instant (apparently the air shield or whatever it was burned away), then burst apart as though it had taken a grenade launcher round. Job done, the projectile rained down as relatively harmless stone shrapnel.
"I'll stop yo-o-o—" Aang wasn't allowed to finish—Blast glared again, while Iroh, Azula, and I blasted him with lightning for good measure. "Whoa... ah... ngh!"
"Just die already!" Zuko snarled, sending a torrent of flame toward the Avatar.
"Waaah!" Unfortunately, Aang wasn't an idiot, and after running into a "welcoming committee" like ours, he did exactly what any sensible person should have done.
He booked it.
And that little bastard was fast! On top of that, we had a gigantic drill here taking up half the available "maneuvering room." For us. The Avatar, meanwhile, was perfectly happy zipping around across every available surface like some kind of Spider-Man high on something!
"Blast, Zuko—left. Azula, with me on the right! Everyone else—do what you can!" Under the circumstances, the only way to stop our opponent was to split up and keep the little bastard from hiding out on one side. "Toph, do something about the rockfall!" Chasing an airbender while granite boulders rained down from above was very much not my idea of a good time.
"Uh-huh... do something... I can't catch rocks in midair! Although..." The girl had clearly thought of something, but I didn't have time to worry about it.
"Grr-rd!" With a thunderous clang of his prosthetic, Blast vaulted himself over the maintenance railing along the edge of the drill and tried to blast the bastard out of the air. Unfortunately, it didn't work—the kid managed to dodge, and the airborne explosion merely licked across the drill's steel flank.
Meanwhile, I was frantically looking for Sokka and Katara. Had he left them on the wall, or had they gone off to play heroes with a plan along the lines of "let's destroy the Fire Nation's awesome piece of engineering with the Power of Friendship and a convenient deus ex machina"? Neither possibility was particularly appealing.
"Vaatu! I'll stop you!" Aang's determined shout came from up ahead as he charged the poor mercenary.
And damn it, the kid had gotten even faster since the last time we'd met! Not supersonic, of course, but to the eye he really did "smear into a streak," hovering a couple of inches above the ground and gliding along as though he were wearing roller skates. Rocket-powered roller skates.
The kid made it all the way to Blast and even managed to smack him with his staff. Except... how should I put this... Ah, right. The Avatar was a strong kid. But he was light. Our bald-headed friend, meanwhile, weighed something like two hundred and sixty pounds. So while the airbender's accelerated attacks were clearly making an impression on the mercenary, they weren't enough to knock him down. The problem was that, with things like this, we couldn't hit the little guy either without risking nailing our own man.
Blast managed just fine on his own, though, nearly smashing the boy's head in. That put a sudden damper on Aang's determination, and when he was immediately almost blown up at point-blank range, he promptly accelerated to orbital velocity and opened up the distance again.
"You have to stop! He deceived you!" he yelled, now clearly addressing Azula and me as we rushed toward him.
"Fascinating!" Azula scoffed, somehow packing about a gallon and a half of venom into that one word as, without the slightest pause, she sent a stream of blue fire at our airborne opponent.
(End of Chapter)
🙌Bonus chapter for 200 power stones!
🔥The next bonus chapter will be for 200 power stones.