Appa took off, roaring defiantly as we hurtled towards the city proper. As he began his descent, Toph screamed, so I held her a little tighter to let her know I had her.
"Can we please buy a new saddle? Riding bareback is terrifying!" she yelled before burying her face into Appa's fur.
Just ahead, the palace complex sprawled out all over the place.
"Geez, that whole place is the palace?" Mogui yelled over the rush of air.
"Theoretically, the Earth King's private quarters should be in the centre!" Sokka yelled.
"Sure, let's break into the guy's bedroom," Jin yelled back. "Because we're already so popular!"
"You're just worried he's changing!" I joked.
Jin threw me an annoyed look.
"You should be too!"
"Guys, we need to be careful," Katara called. "Long Feng's probably had a chance to get to the King and warn him."
"In which case, he won't be getting dressed," Mogui concluded, resulting in Jin smacking him upside the head. "Why do you do this!? You never hit Muteki!"
"If I could reach his head, I would!"
I stuck my tongue out at Mogui, who rolled his eyes at me.
"Why would you assume that Long Feng reached the King?" Sokka called. "If you ask me-"
Mogui and I shared a look before Jin said what we were both thinking.
"MUZZLE HIM!" she screamed as Mogui slapped a hand over Sokka's mouth.
At that moment, Appa dodged an enormous stone that shot past us.
"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Toph screamed.
"We're getting shot at because someone couldn't keep his mouth shut!" I replied.
Appa evaded several more flying rocks, and it was all we could do to hang on. A rock shot towards us, which Aang casually backhanded, and we continued forward.
"Toph, hang tight, alright?" I called to her, then waved to get the attention of the other two. "Mog, Jin, I'm gonna try and keep some of the rocks to a minimum. Think you can keep me from becoming a human pancake?"
"No promises!" Jin yelled back.
"Your pants better be made of miracle stuff, cause if it tears, you're going down, buddy!" Mogui yelled.
"Geez, thanks!"
I carefully let go of the small earthbender, who clung all the tighter to Appa and got closer to the other two. Once close enough, I carefully stood, the two of them holding a leg each.
A boulder came flying, and while normally I would use my legs for earthbending, I didn't have a whole lot of choice at this point.
I made jabbing motions, sending the smaller debris from Aang's boulder breaks hurtling back to the earthbenders on the ground.
Two went down, but another two took their place.
"Crap," I muttered.
Aang split another one and bracing myself; I tried to bend the rocks back down. I barely managed to when Aang shot forward and demolished the earthbending soldiers with a single move.
Once Appa was landed, we all hopped off.
"Nice one, mate," I said, clapping him on the back. "Now, you, Toph, and I let's go!"
More earthbenders popped out of the ground and launched much smaller stones at us. While Toph and Aang focused on keeping them off our sides, I ploughed through the front. Jin appeared on my left, shooting forward as she punched an earthbender in the nose, then nimbly dodged a second bender's attack.
Clearly, her insistence on practising without her bending paid off. Mogui, on the other hand...
"Yeah, team, let's go!" he cheered, keeping pace with Katara and Sokka.
Katara had a water whip, taking down whoever the rest of us missed.
"Sorry!" she winced as she powered through them.
More arrived, and Toph knocked them down, domino-style.
"Sorry, we just need to get through to see the Earth King!" Katara called.
"That's why they're stopping us," I said as we ran towards the palace. "They're trying to protect their king from enemies to the state."
"He's right," Jin huffed as she looked over at the soldiers. "Far as they know, we're here to assassinate the guy."
We almost reached the stairs when a new wave of earthbenders launched two statues of badger moles at us.
"Look at that!" Mogui yelled as they drew ever closer. "No respect for the classics!"
"Not the time Mog!" I yelled as we earthbenders created a barrier to protect everyone from the heavy statues, which crashed against the stone.
Katara shot out from behind the barrier, and from the sounds of things, she cleaned up. The rest of us caught up while Aang froze the moat to stop the soldiers from chasing us.
More rocks, though, and from really high up too.
"They just keep coming!" Mogui complained.
"Oh, hush up!" I snapped. "Those of us not likely to get lynched for our bending - with the exception of Jin - have been doing all the heavy lifting."
"Hey! Moral support is an incredibly difficult job!"
"Sure it is," I growled as I came up behind Toph.
She appeared to be trying to bend the stairs and succeeded when she caused the staircase to become a great stone slide.
"Ouch," Jin said as they came skidding down.
Toph and I took up bending stances, then bent some earth up along the ramp, like an elevator, while Aang took up a position at the front to deal with anyone in the way.
"Seriously," Sokka yelled. "We're actually on your guys' side!"
"Sorry, mate!" Mogui also yelled.
We got to the top, and before the soldiers could attack, I jumped out and began to bend. I was frustrated. I was tired.
And I wasn't bending earth.
Lava shot up from the ground and created a literal wall of hot earth between them and us.
"Woah," Mogui said. "What was that about lynching and bending?"
"No time, move!" Jin yelled, prompting everyone to get moving.
"Right!" Sokka responded, snapping out of his daze. "In there!"
"What did you do?" Toph demanded as we ran in. "The ground got hot all of a sudden!"
"Apparently, I can lava bend!"
"Sweet."
We came into a large square room with three doors. Soldiers popped out there too.
"What is this, an earthbender factory!?" Jin demanded as Toph pinned them to the roof.
"Probably!" Mogui responded.
"Toph, which way to the Earth King?" Sokka demanded.
"HOW SHOULD I KNOW!?" Toph snapped. "I'm still voting we leave Ba Sing Se!"
While those of us bending dealt with the Soldiers, Mogui, Sokka, and Jin went looking through every door.
"Come on!" I growled, trying to lavabend again. "How'd I do it earlier!"
"Get mad!" Mogui yelled from one of the passages.
"THAT'S SO HELPFUL, MOGUI!"
I still can't lavabend again.