- Third POV -
Teo's father is standing behind a table with Sokka. The model hot air balloon, a few plans, and a candle are resting on the table. Aang, Mizuki, Katara, and Teo are on the other side, surrounded by other colonists.
"We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka. This boy's a genius!" Beams the mechanist happily.
"Thank you. You're a genius!" Replies Sokka.
"Thank you!" Chuckles the man.
"See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get it air-borne. But once it did, it just kept going" Begins Sokka as he places a candle in the model of the war balloon. He pulls a string connected to the model, putting it on the table.
"You 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?" Asks Sokka.
"If only we knew" Sighs Katara.
"A lid is actually the answer. If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon" Continues Sokka.
"Huh, that's actually pretty smart" Compliments Katara.
"Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs: smoke, slime, fire, and-" Sokka gets cut off by the mechanist.
"Stink! Never underestimate the power of stink!" Chuckles the man.
❀❀❀
Everyone is outside, waiting anxiously for any sign of the Fire Nation.
"They're coming!" Shouts a young girl.
"Are we ready?" Asks Teo.
"Yes. But where's Sokka with the war balloon?" Replies Mizuki nervously.
"We'll have to start without it" States Aang as he jumps off Appa. Everyone begins readying their flying machines for take off. They begin the assault as their gliders fly off into the air while the Fire Nation troops begin climbinb the cliff path. They are attacked by the various bombs thrown at them.
"Take them out of the sky. Now!" Shouts a Fire Nation soldier while Aang jumps onto an air scooter, moving across a ledge, causing snow to fall onto soldiers below before jumping back onto his glider. The soldiers begin retreating.
"We've got them on the run! We need more slime!" Yells Aang. A few gliders are flying through the clouds to Appa and receive more bombs from Katara. Suddenly, some hooks fly through the clouds nearly hitting Appa and latching onto the cliff. Tanks begin scaling the cliffs via the chains. Aang notices this and manages to remove one hook. The tank falls before sending out another hook. The gliders continue to fly dropping bombs in an attempt to slow the tanks down. Mizuki and Aang land on a cliff and airbend the tanks away. However, the tanks flip over and readjust themselves before continuing.
"Those things are unstoppable!" Shouts Katara worriedly at Mizuki and Teo, who are flying above her.
"I think I know how they work. I remember my dad tinkering with the counterbalancing system. Something to do with water. Works great, huh?" Mentions Teo.
"Water? Mimi, can you get me close to one?" Asks Katara while Mizuki begins to fly next to Appa, allowing Katara to get on the glider. Aang's fending off the fire blasts of the soldiers who are inside of the tanks while Mizuki and Katara land next to him. They freeze multiple tanks with waterbending while Aang defends them from fire blasts. Appa lands next to the trio. Aang and Mizuki get on Appa's back.
"I'm gonna try to hold them off for a while, you guys go!" Shouts Mizuki as she continues to use her waterbending to freeze tanks. Appa begins to ascend and flies towards Teo.
"We're out of bombs!" Exclaims Teo concerned.
"Come on Sokka. Where's that war balloon?" Mutters Katara nervously. Suddenly, the war balloon appears behind Appa. Mizuki looks up at the huge war balloon and stops attacking the tanks. Looks like it's time to get out of here. Mizuki waterbends a spiral out of the ice and uses it to propel herself into the air. As soon as she's in the air, she uses her airbending to jump towards Appa. Katara grabs Mizuki's hand and lifts her onto Appa.
"Hey, why aren't they shooting at us?" Asks Sokka confused.
"The insignia! They think we're on their side" Explains the mechanist as he points at the insignia on the war balloon.
"Then I guess they won't see this coming" Exclaims Sokka as he cuts a rope attached to a large bomb.
"Bombs away!" Shouts Sokka as the bomb begins to fall. As soon as it explodes, the Fire Nation soldiers get washed away by the slime of the bomb. Sokka begins to cut another rope, and multiple bombs begin to fall down.
"Oh no, that was the last one" Says Sokka as he notices that a few tanks managed to avoid getting hit and begin to scale the cliffs.
"Wait a second. You smell that?" Points out the mechanist.
"Rotten eggs! There! That's were the gas is escaping" Sokka points at a rock crevice. Sokka begins levering the engine away from the bottom of the balloon in an attempt to get it free.
"What are you doing? That's our fuel source" Asks Teo's father in a worried tone.
"It's the only bomb we've got" Replies Sokka as he drops the engine to the crevice below them. Suddenly, a huge explosion goes off. The explosion destroys the cliffs around the Northern Air Temple, creating a gap between the Fire Nation soldiers and the others.
"Look! They're retreating!" Points out Mizuki as the crowd begins to cheer. However, they stop cheering the moment they see the war balloon fly past them.
"We're going down!" Shouts Sokka horrified.
"No, Sokka! Hold on!" Yells Katara as Aang jumps on his glider and flies towards them.
"Get ready!" Says Sokka as he swings his boomering around with a rope attached to it. Sokka throws the boomerang toward Aang which latches onto his glider. Sokka and the mechanist get pulled out of the balloon and dragged away towards the Northen Air Temple.
❀❀❀
"You know what? I'm really glad you guys all live here now" Beams Aang as he turns around to face Teo and his father.
"I realized, it's like the hermit crab. Maybe you weren't born here, but you found this empty shell and made it your home. And now you protect each other" States Aang while picking up a hermit crab.
"That means a lot, coming from you" Grins Teo happily.
"Aang you were right about air power. As long as we've got the skies, we'll have the Fire Nation on the run" Says Sokka as everyone begins to cheer. Somewhere in a snowy forest, below the temple, a Fire Nation soldier finds the war balloon laying on the ground.
"This defeat is the gateway to many victories" Chuckles the man evilly.
To be continued
Word count: 1.111