"Geez, we've really made a mess," I commented as I surveyed the damage.
There was a pile of rubble behind us and a lot of broken architecture.
"You know, I can see it now, we're gonna walk in, and he's gonna have us arrested."
"That's assuming Long Feng got to him first," Mogui commented.
Muteki and Toph wiped the sweat from their brow, Aang breathing a little harder, and Katara too. They've been doing most of the work, and I hated that I couldn't assist without making our already weak case worse.
"Or you know," I retorted as Sokka climbed some debris to look past it. "He might just forgive the 'trashing his place' and 'beating up his soldiers' and 'coming in uninvited' things. Let's not forget, we're also accusing his closest advisor of corruption."
"But he is corrupt," Aang said, frowning.
"Yes, but he doesn't know that," I sighed. "Does no one else see that we're probably not making the best case for ourselves?"
"It's not like we have a whole lot of room for choices, you know?" Muteki huffed, pushing his crimson hair back.
"Hey, now that's an impressive door!" Sokka yelled from atop the debris. "It's gotta go somewhere."
"Like prison, probably," I muttered as we hurried to catch up with Sokka.
Sokka seemed to be having no success with the enormous double doors, decorated with gold and beautiful carvings. So Toph and Aang decided to break it down.
"WHY DON'T WE JUST ADD DESTROYING BEAUTIFUL DOORS TO THE LIST WHILE WE'RE AT IT?" I yelled, throwing my hands up.
"What else were we supposed to do?" Mogui demanded as he strolled through. "Knock politely?"
"That might've been a start," I snapped back.
While the others ran ahead, I decided to stroll through. I might as well admire the scenery before they tear it down, right? Oh, I hope they don't. It's very tasteful.
We stopped before a large dais, a beautiful golden throne in the middle, with a very young and rather cute guy on it.
Probably the Earth King.
"Huh, he's cute," I said, not hiding my surprise.
Long Feng stepped out in front of the King, blocking him off from us. Rude.
"We need to talk to you!" Aang called urgently.
"They're here to overthrow you," Long Feng said, turning to the king.
"No, we're on your side," Sokka defended.
"We're here to help!" Mogui insisted.
"You have to trust us!" Katara pleaded.
"Ok, stop," I cut them off before the King had an opportunity to retort. "Did I not just give you guys a list of all the reasons he probably won't trust us? We sorta trashed his house and beat up his people."
"Oh yeah," Mogui said, sheepishly grinning up at the King.
So I smacked him upside the head.
"Ow," he whined, rubbing his head.
"Yeah, Firehair has a point, you guys," Toph said sardonically.
"If you're on my side, then drop your weapons and stand down," the Earth King said, watching us.
He appeared to have stood up during my rant.
The others dropped their weapons, one by one, while those of us without weapons held our hands out in a non-threatening manner.
"See?" Aang said with an attempt at charm. "We're friends, your Earthiness."
Earth King was unamused. Of course, he was. His freaking house just got trashed! I'd probably have had us thrown out in his position.
Which is when he waved his arm, and Long Feng signals the Dai Li, and we all get our hands tied up behind our back.
"Brilliant," I said aloud. "Fly right in and attack the guy's house. Works every time, don't you think?"
Mogui groaned. "I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"
"If I go to prison, or get brainwashed, or killed or whatever," I retorted haughtily. "I'm blaming the planning guys."
"Hey!" Sokka and Mogui whined.