Dai Li's Personal Spy

Chapter 35: I wasn't alone this time.

The columns crumbled against the push of the metal. We grew more anxious as the Terra Team appeared to approach failure. Something pink and black slid down the side of the metal and onto the ground, running alongside the drill. I squinted as I saw one of the figures launch a flurry of knives at the Terra Team. They barely managed to shield themselves from the sharp airborne objects before the pink figure honed in on them. Ty Lee effortlessly darted around the soldiers, using confusion as her blanket for disguise as she poked around the soldiers, jabbing and kicking at them. She left them twitching on the floor and finished with a little twirl.

We looked back to the general, knowing that they had been defeated for the time being. He was biting his nails in a nervous fit and then yelled out, " We're doomed!"

Sokka grabbed the man and slapped him across the face, "Get a hold of yourself, man!" This seemed to wake the general up from his dizzying panic attack.

He rubbed his cheek, "You're right. I'm sorry."

"Maybe you'd like the Avatar's help now?" Toph emphasised the now, looking at the general expectantly.

The man bowed his head, looking at Aang in a mix of pleading and shame, "Yes, please."

We huddled together, staring at the drill as it inched closer and closer to the wall. I was stumped. I, for one, wasn't in favour of hurtling some rock at a spinning sharp drill and seeing what happens. "The question is, how are we going to stop that thing?" Aang questioned. Without even really thinking about it, I inclined my head towards Sokka, immediately expecting him to have something to say at the ready.

"Why are you all looking at me?" Sokka asked somewhat in innocent stupidity.

"You're the idea guy," Aang responded plainly.

"So I'm the only one who can ever come up with a plan? That's a lot of pressure," Sokka, of course, complained, rather than being flattered.

"And also the complaining guy," Katara echoed my inner monologue.

"That part I don't mind," Sokka admitted. We were interrupted by a groaning Terra Team being carried towards the shade we were under. We helped set them down and Katara worked at them with her healing hands.

"What's wrong with him? He doesn't look injured," The general observed, watching Katara's water-encased hands glide over the man's body, casting a blue light onto his green uniform.

"His chi is blocked. Who did this to you?" Katara asked the soldier, but I believed I already knew the answer. I suppose the group didn't know them as well as I did and maybe hadn't been watching them as well as well.

"Two girls ambushed us. One of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs, and suddenly, I couldn't earth bend anymore, and I could barely move. Then she cartwheeled away." Ding, ding, ding.

"Ty Lee. She doesn't look dangerous, but she knows the human body and its weak points. It's like she takes you down from the inside," Katara said at the mention of cartwheeling. Sokka's eyes widened, and his face lit up.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh! Ooh!" He exclaimed, like a chittering hog-monkey. We turned to his outburst of noise but not words.

"Yes?" Questioned Katara.

"What you just said! That's how we're going to take down the drill! The same way Ty Lee took down all those big earthbenders!" He had rightly named him the ideas guy.

"By hitting its pressure points!" Toph added on.

"We'll take it down from the inside," Aang said determinedly, looking out onto the drill with its blazing patriotic emblem. I didn't have anything stoic to say, I was rather shitting my pants. I glanced over our surrounding environments and saw that the Terra team wore a sash. Green, and not transparent. Perfect.