"Nothing without intention
Do nothing without intention"
Thanks for 3k reads and over 200 vote you guys are amazing
___________
Aang ,Kaztumi, Katara and Sokka sit on the first bench to the left. Some children kneel on the ground in front of the benches. They are all listening to a man sitting in front of the fire that burns in the center of the gathering.
"So travelers, the next time you think you hear a strange large bird talking, take a closer look, it might not be a giant parrot, but a flying man! A member of a secret group of air walkers who laugh at gravity and laugh at those bound to the earth by it! " The storyteller says
" Aren't airbender stories the best? " Aang asks the group
"Was it realistic? Was that how it was back then? " Kaztumi asks
"I laugh at gravity all the time. Haha! Gravity." Aang laughs out
Suddenly a pair of hands holding an open hat appear in front of Sokka. The hands shake the hat and the jungle of coins is heard.
Sokka searches his coast, but when he opens his hands there is only some lint and a bug
"Sorry!" Sokka apologizes
"Aww. Cheapskates! " The storyteller mumbles
Aang runs over to the storyteller who is facing another audience member as he seeks more donations.
"Hey thanks for the story! " Aang say
"Tell it to the cap, boy! " He thrust the hat at Aang without looking at him A copper piece falls on the ground, which Momo picks up and deposits in the cap. The storyteller pats Momo.
"Aw, much obliged little bat thing!"
"It means a lot to hear airbender stories. It must have been hundred years ago your great grandpa met them. " Aang states
"What are you prattling about child? Great grand-pappy saw the air walkers last week!"
❅
Appa flies above puffy white clouds, snow capped mountains in the distance.
"Hey, we're almost at the Northern Air Temple! This is where they had the championships for sky bison polo." Aang tells the group
"Do you think we'll really find airbenders? " Kaztumi and Katara asks
"You want me to be like you, or totally honest? " Sokka says
"Are you saying I'm a liar? " Katara folds her arms
"I'm saying you're an optimist. Same thing basically." Sokka admits
"Hey guys, look at this!" Aang points
The Northern Air Temple. It sits atop a sheer peak similar to its sister temple down south. Unlike that temple, however, there are people or things flying around this one. Smoke rises in lazy pillars from a couple places among the spires. Around the temple fly many gliders.
"Huh! They really are airbenders! " Katzumi says
" No, they're not. " Aang slumps back
"What do you mean they're not? Those guys are flying! " Sokka exclaimes
"Gliding maybe, but not flying. You can tell by the way they move. They're not airbending. Those people have no spirit. " Aang explains
Kaztumi, Katara, and Sokka almost get their heads taken off by a glider as it passes over their heads. The glider pilot laughs. A teenage boy wearing amber goggles and seated in a glider built out of a wheelchair laughs and wheels his craft around for another pass at Appa.
"I don't know, Aang. That kid seems pretty spirited! " Katara states
The wheelchair glider makes another pass. Aang looks at him and gets a competitive look on his face. He jumps into the air, unfolds his glider and takes off. The other gliders now fly in formation around Appa. Katara falls backward, crashing into Sokka.
"We better find some solid ground before it finds us! " Sokka says.
Kaztumi takes the reins and lands Appa gracefully on one of the temple's outer terraces.
Aang flies upward as well and comes up just behind the his target. Aang continues the pursuit. Teo hits his brakes, loops backwards and ends us behind Aang. They twirl around each other in a controlled dive.
"Hey there! You're pretty good. " Teo yells out to him
"Yeh, I know. But I can do more than fancy gliding!" Aang breaks his descent, turns and shoots straight upward. He comes back to the one of temple's towers, let's go of his glider, and starts running along the side of the tower. Then he produces an air scooter, jumps on it and rides it along the outside wall of the tower, his glider still running along side of him. He lets the air scooter die and then jumps back on his glider and soars back into the sky.
"Wow! I don't think I can do that! But here's a good one... " Teo releases a cord on his glider and a cylinder on the back of his glider begins to leave a trail of thick grey smoke. Teo manipulates his glider through loops and arcs, leaving the grey trail behind him. . Teo made a picture of Aang's face, arrow and all, with a sour expression. The crowd laughs.
"What do you think? " Teo asks
"It's great. " Aang says not impressed
Aang lands next to Katzumi, Katara, and Sokka, folding his glider. Teo lands his glider right behind, skidding only a bit before he applies his hand break and come to a stop. A bunch of kids come up and detach the glider from his wheelchair. He then wheels over to Aang and his friends.
"Hey! You're a REAL airbender! You must be the Avatar! That's amazing! I, I, I've heard stories about you. " Teo says Amazed
"Thanks. " Aang rubs the back of his head embarrassed
"Wow! This glider chair is incredible!" Sokka yells
"If you think this is good, wait until you see the other stuff my Dad designed."
Teo begins to wheel away, Sokka and the others following.
When they reach the main chamber, it is quite unlike that seen in. The room is dominated by a jumble of steam-powered machinery with many wheels, gears and pipes. It is not pretty. A beautiful statue of an airbender monk is seen in a recessed portico in the wall, but it too seems dirty and befouled as does the rest of the room. Shafts of sunlight do filter in, but the steam and dust make it look shadowy.
"Wow!" Sokka gasps
"Yeh, my Dad is the mastermind behind this whole place! Everything's powered by hot air. It even pumps hot air currents outside to give us a lift when we're gliding. "
As he speaks a woman walks over to cage which she gets into. She pulls a rope and steam power lifts the cage up to a higher level where she exits.
"This place is unbelievable." Aang looks around
":Yeh, it's great isn't it? " Teo asks
"No, just unbelievable."
" Ever try refurbishing the place?" Katzumi asks Teo
" Why it's amazing" Sokka explains
"Aang used to come here a long time ago. I think he's a little shocked it's so... different. " Katara tells Teo
"So better! " Sokka again says
The Avatar is looking at a mural. It was surely once breathtakingly beautiful. Now, it is gritty and dirty. Worse, many of the figures and shapes in the mural have been destroyed since many pipes now and enter and exit the wall here.
"This is supposed to be the history of my people."
Katzumi walks over and puts a hand on his shoulder, but he walks away over to a huge statue that once had a fountain attached to it. Now the fountain basin is full of green industrial looking effluence that bubbles and spirits. The statue then emits a cloud of black smoke from its mouth, scaring Aang.
"Ugh!"
"I'm sure some parts of the temple are still the same." Katara says
❅
The group are in the main courtyard, of a satellite building which looks untouched. Airbender statues still reside here.
"It's nice to see even one part of the temple that isn't ruined." Aang admits
"Look out!" A voice yells
The statue disintegrates as a wrecking ball smashes through it. Aang and Katzumi fall backward with flying debris and dust. Everyone coughs. As the dust settles, many figures can be seen through the hole the wrecking ball just created. One of them walks forward, a middle aged man with a bald head and weird, patches of pointy hair on either side of his head. His right eye has a red monocle. He wears a green tunic mostly covered by the white smock or apron of an artisan.
" What the doodle! Don't you know enough to stay away from construction sites? We have to make room for the bathhouse! " The Mechanist says to the kids
" Do you know what you did? You just destroyed something sacred! For a stupid bathhouse! " Aang yells
"Well, people around here are starting to stink." The Mechanist tells him
"This whole place stinks!" Aang strikes the ground with his staff, sending a gale back through the hole in the wall.
"This is a sacred temple! You can't treat it this way. I've seen it when the monks were here. I know what it's supposed to be like." Aang yells
"The monks? But you're 12!"The Mechanist exclaimes
"Dad, he's the Avatar. He used to come here a hundred years ago." Teo explains
"What are you doing? Who said you could be here?" Aang integrates
"Hmmm... doing here... A long time ago, but not a hundred years, my people became refugees after a terrible flood . My infant son, Teo, was badly hurt and lost his mother. I needed somewhere to rebuild and I stumbled across this place. Couldn't believe it! Everywhere pictures of flying people. But empty! Nobody home! Then I came across these fan like contraptions!"The Mechanist puts his hands out and extends his arms as if they were wings and makes flying motions across the courtyard for emphasis. He stops in front of Aang, who still looks angry.
" Our gliders." Aang explains
"Yes, little light flying machines. They gave me an idea. Build a new life for my son, in the air! Then everyone would be on equal ground, so to speak! We're just in the process of improving upon what's already here and after all, isn't that what nature does? "
"Nature knows where to stop." Aang exclaims
"I suppose that's true. Unfortunately, progress has a way of getting away from us. Look at the time!" The Mechanist looks at
three candles burning brightly on a stone pedestal. Each of the three candles is separated neatly into different sections. Next to the pedestal a large mallet rests, head down.
"Come the pulley system must be oiled before dark."
"Wait, how can you tell the time from that thing? The notches all look the same." Sokka asks
"The candle will tell us. Watch." The Mechanist says
The candle flame snaps four times in a row.
"You put spark powder in the candle!" Sokka smiles at the invention
"Four flashes, so it's exactly four hours past midday, or, as I call it, four o'candle! " The Mechanist explains
"If you like that, wait till you see my finger safe knife sharpener! Only took me three tries to get it right! " The Mechanist takes out the wooden fingers and throws them at Sokka
"Aaahhh!" Sokka screams
"Follow me!" Sokka and the others run after The Mechanist, leaving Katara, Kaztumi, Aang and Teo alone.
"Hey Aang, I want to show you something."
❅
The group walks down a long corridor of the Temple. Huge Air Nomad swirls are built into mosaics in the floor. They all stand in front of a door. It is huge, made of wood, and it is dominated in the center by a woodcut comprised of three wooden air symbols protruding from its surface and which are arranged in a triangular pattern.
"Hey! It's just like the one in the other Air Temple." Kaztumi states
"Only an airbender can open it – so inside it's completely untouched, just the way the monks left it. I've always wondered what it was like in there." Teo says
"Aang?" Katara asks
"I'm sorry, this is the last part of temple that the same as it was. I want it to stay that way." Aang admits
"I completely understand. I just wanted you to know it was here." Teo states
"Thanks. " Aang turns and starts walking back down the hall the way they had come
❅
Sokka and the Mechanist walk down a dark, narrow stone staircase. They hold lanterns that glow light blue, but don't put out much light.
"These lanterns are terrible! I can't see." Sokka stops and opens one. Inside the jar is packed with fireflies. One escapes.
"Why would you want to use fireflies for light?" Sokka asks
"Hey! Close that up! They'll get loose. Fireflies are a non-flammable light source" The Mechanist yells
They continue, coming to a door whose edges are blocked with some kind of caulk. The Mechanist feels around the caulk-like insulation, looking for leaks. He turns to Sokka.
"Cover your nose and hold your breath." The Mechanist orders
a panel slides open and Sokka and the Mechanist's eyes looking into the hole.
"Okay, so you brought me all the way down here to see an empty room." Sokka boredly says
"Wrong."
"It's filled to the brim with natural gas. Came across it my first time here. Unfortunately, I was carrying a torch at the time. Nearly blew myself and the whole place even more sky high. Thought my eyebrows would never grow back! Anyway, there's a vital problem that needs solving. From time to time we have gas leaks and they're nearly impossible to find." The Mechanist says
" So this place is an explosion waiting to happen?" Sokka asks
"Yes, until I figure out how to locate something I can't see, hear, smell or touch."
❅
"The wind will carry you. It supports something inside you – something even lighter than air, and that something takes over when you fly." Teo explains
Katara and Kaztumi stand at the edge of the terrace, holding a glider.
"I've changed my mind. I think I was born without that something." Katzumi looks down and cringes
"Impossible! Everybody has it."
"Spirit."Aang states
"What?" Teo asks
"That's the something you're talking about." Aang answered back
"Yeh, I suppose it is."
"Are you ready? " Teo asks the two girls
"No!" Katzumi yells and slightly reals back. Just then Katara grabs her arm and jumps off the cliff. Both Katara and Kaztumi Scream as the first start falling but soon the glider carries them as the glide through the air.
"I can't believe I'm flying!" Katzumi exclaimes laughing
"Just make sure to keep your mouth closed so you don't swallow a bug!' Aang yells through the air.
"Teo was right about the air! All I had to do was trust it. Let it carry me." Katara exclaims
"Even though Teo's not an airbender, he really does have the spirit of one."
Teo is back on the terrace, his glider detached and off to the slide. Aang glides in and folds up his glider.
"I've been thinking. If you wanna see what's in that room, I'd be happy to open the door for you." Aang suggest
"Great!" Teo Exclaims
"Wait! How do I land this thing? What if I land – eh! Blech! Yech! Bug! Bug! That was a bug!" Katara leans to her left and She crashes Into Kaztumi. Both girls yell as they crash into courtyard of the Temple
❅
The Mechanist's bends over some plans on his desk while Sokka knocks over some junk.
"I said don't touch anything! Oh, don't worry, that experiments old and that egg was just part of last week's lunch." The Mechanist says
"Ugh! Week old egg smell!" Sokka groans
"Quick! Find that egg!"
Both begin crawling on their hands and knees to find the egg.
❅
"I can't believe I'm finally going to see what's inside."
Aang airbends two jets of air, one from each arm, into the horns at the bottom of the woodcut. The air runs through the tubes and one by one flips the air symbols from the blue sides which had been showing, to the maroon sides which had been facing the interior of the temple. As each turns, it flips another mechanism on the outside of a door, clearly all three of the symbols had to trigger each of their mechanisms in order to unlock the Temple door.
❅
"How could something that's so small you can't even see it make such a big stink!" Sokka groans
"That's the solution to our problem!" The Mechanist says getting an idea
"Yeh!" The both crawl around to face each other, forgetting to stand up in their excitement.
"If we put a whole mess of rotten eggs in the cellar where the gas seeps up..." Sokka starts off
"The gas will mix with the smell of rotten eggs..." The Mechanist continues
"Then, if there's a leak..."
"You smell rotten eggs! Then you just follow your nose to the place where the smell is coming from..."
"And plug up the hole where the gas is escaping! "
"You're a genius! " The two yell at each other
Suddenly a large bell starts ringing.
"Something's wrong I've got to go. " The mechanist says
❅
The doors open, The group walks in and are horrified. It is filled with evil looking war machines and torture devices.
"This is a nightmare." Aang says to himself
"You don't understand." The mechanist yells running up to them
"You're making weapons for the Fire Nation!" Aang yelled
"You make weapons for the Fire Nation!? " Sokka yelled
The Mechanist looks down in humiliation.
"Explain all this! Now!"
"It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this tale. They were going to destroy everything, burn it to the ground. I pleaded with them, I begged them to spare us. They asked what I had to offer. I offered... my services. You must understand, I did this for you!"
Teo turns his head and his wheelchair away. The Machinist turns and walks back down the hall.
❅
The Mechanist is back in his office. He is playing with a balloon driven by a candle in a basket below it. There are two eggs in the basket with happy faces on them. He lets the balloon go and it rises toward the ceiling. Behind him the door Aang and Teo in the doorway.
"When are they coming?" Aang asked
"Soon." He looks at a clock candle which sparks once.
"You can't give them more weapons." Aang states
"If I don't give them what they want they will destroy this place." he Mechanist tries to explain
"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Teo asked ashamed of his Fathers wrong doings
"I need some time to think.You need to leave! Go!" After a pause, a little tinkling bell is heard.
"We're not leaving!" Teo insists
"Then hide, quickly!"
The Mechanist then pulls a lever and a wheel built into the floor begins to turn rapidly. A trap door in the floor next to the wheel opens and steam rises through the opening. A man in Fire Nation garb rises through the opening. He is standing on a square of wood that becomes flush with the rest of the floor when the elevator completes its movement.
"You know better than to keep me waiting. Give me what you owe us so I can be on my way. Well? Is there a problem?"The Emissary asks
" No, right this way. " The emissary begins to move to the door, but it is shut by a blast of air from Aang. He lands in front of the closed door.
"The deal's off!" Aang yells
"The Avatar!" The Emissary gasps
"Aang, don't get involved!" The mechanist pleads
"If I don't get what I came for the Fire Nation will burn this place to rubble!" The Emissary yells
"Get out of here! You're leaving empty handed!" Aang yells
"Then the destruction of this temple will be on your head."
the emissary goes back down the elevator. Aang closes the trap door with a blast of air.
❅
The kids and Teo on the same causeway to the satellite building they were on earlier.
"This is bad! Very bad!" Sokka says
"Aang, what are we gonna do? How can we possibly keep them all away?" Katzumi asks
"I'll tell ya how. We have something they don't. Air power! We control the sky. That' something the Fire Nation can't do. We can win!" Aang insists
"I want to help." The Machinist states
" Good, we'll need it. "
❅
" We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka."
"This boy's a genius!" The mechanist congratulates
"Thank you. You're a genius!" Sokka insist feeling flattered
"Thank you!"
Aang and Katzumi look at other strangely over this self-congratulatory exchange.
"See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get it airborne, but once you did, it just kept going. 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?" Sokka explains to the group
"Ugh, if only we knew." Katara mumbles to the group who laughs
"A lid is actually the answer. If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon." Sokka demonstrates by pulling a string connected to the lid that opens and closes it.
"Hmm. That's actually pretty smart" Kaztumi adds
"Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs. Smoke, slime, fire and..." Sokka explains forgetting the last element
"...stink. Never underestimate the power of stink!" The machinist finishes
❅
" They're coming! "
"Are we ready?" Teo asks
"Yes, but where's Sokka with the war balloon?' Katara asks
"We'll have to start without him."
Two rows of gliders stand ready to launch. Aang and Teo near there head. Teo gives a thumbs up, then Aang begins the launch sequence. He flies off, Teo behind and then the rest. The deck crews cheer as the gliders launch path up to the Air Temple. It is choked with Fire Nation soldiers climbing up it. Up above, Aang and Teo dive, the other gliders in tow.
They break through the cloud deck and start dropping various bombs on the surprised soldiers. Many fall off the path into the crevices below.
Fire Nation soldiers lowers their spears. They are bombed by gliders. Aang jumps off his glider and creates and air scooter. He rides along the length of the switchback, dumping huge amounts of snow and ice on the soldiers below. And jumps back onto his glider which is gliding by. The avalanche he created continues to drop downward, engulfing row after row of soldiers.
"We've got'em on the run! We need more slime!"
Appa floating motionless above the cloud deck. Katara and Katzumi hands bombs to gliders who pop up over Appa and then disappear back into the combat zone. Suddenly, several huge spikes shoot up through the clouds, narrowly missing Appa.
The spikes are attached to chains that disappear, taught, into the clouds. The spikes embed themselves deep into the rock near the Temple. Appa flies hard to avoid the grappling hooks being thrown up all over the place.
Then, Fire Nation tanks roar onto the field. With two, huge spiked wheels at each end, these heavily armored vehicles are using the grappling hooks to allow them to scale the cliff face. The gliders drops bombs on them, but they have little effect.
Aang flies up to the cliff face, sticks his glider staff into the naked rock, and pulls out one of the grappling hooks. The tank it was attached to begins to drop like a rock, but it fires another grappling hook straight up, narrowly missing Aang.
The tanks climb the cliff face and gain the small plateau area at the base of the Temple. The firebenders in the turrets begin to fire blasts of flame, which the gliders avoid. They drop more bombs, but they are ineffective against the Fire Nation armor.
Aang literally blows them away with blasts of air, but their central cabins of the tanks just flip over and they begin advancing again. The shoot more fire blasts at Aang, who avoids them.
"Those things are unstoppable!" Katara yells at Teo
"I think I know how they work. I remember my Dad tinkering with the counterbalancing system. Something to do with water. Works great, huh?" Teo smiles
" Water? Can you get me close to one? " Katara asks
"No problem!"
Aang is facing off alone against five tanks. They shoot fireball after fireball at him, but he bats them away. They advance on him steadily. Teo swoops into the picture and deposits Katara and Katzumi next to. Both assume a stance and face the tanks at their rights and left.
Katzumi deflects the first two fireball at her then does a 360 with her hands and cuts the wheel off the tank in front of her, making the tank fall over. A grappling hook grabbed Aang's staff. Katara lifts the tank up with a wall of ice and it falls over, broken. They have disposed of three tanks, but a full dozen now bear down on them. Aang jumps in front of Katzumi and Katara and starts batting away fire blasts. The tanks close in. Appa lands in front of them, roars, and tosses aside the two point tanks. The three jump on Appa and he takes off. They survey the battlefield and it is clear that the situation is not good.
"We're out of bombs!' Tep informs
" Come on, Sokka, where's that war balloon?"
As Katara speaks, the war balloon rises behind her. The balloon is red and decked out with a Fire Nation symbol. It's removable top and tail fin give it a vaguely blimp like shape. The Mechanist and Sokka ride in the basket below the balloon. The basket also contains the coal burning plant that provides the heat for the balloon's air. Attached to the basket are four huge sacks of material used for ballast. The balloon moves out over the battlefield as the enemy armor advances below.
" Hey, why aren't they shooting at us? " Sokka asks
"The insignia! They think we're on their side!"
"Then I guess they won't see this coming."
" Bomb away! "
The balloon and the enemy troops and tanks underneath. One of the ballast sacks drops and blows in a huge explosion of slime on the ground. Sokka drops the other three bombs. The slime washes most of the infantry away, but the tanks continue. They reach the next cliff to scale and begin to use their grappling hooks.
'Oh no! That was the last one!" Sokka yells
"Wait a second, you smell that?" The =Machinist asks
"Rotten eggs!"
" There! That's where the gas is escaping!"
Sokka gets an idea. Cut to a shot of the tanks scaling the cliff, Air Temple residents working furiously up top to dislodge the grappling hooks. Sokka begins to ready the balloon's coal-burning plant to be thrown overboard.
"What are you doing!? That's our fuel source!" The Machinist asks Sokka
" It's the only bomb we've got! "
They throw the coal furnace overboard into the crevasse. It hits the sides on its way down. Suddenly The temple is buffeted by a series of enormous, fiery explosions at its base. The coal furnace has ignited the escaping natural gas. The Temple is covered in smoke. When it clears, the grappling hook chains dangle in the breeze with nothing attached to them. In the distance, the remaining Fire Nation troops are running back down the mountain.
"Look! They're retreating!" Aang yells
"Yeh!!!" everyone cheers
Suddenly the war balloon is on a clear downward trajectory.
" We're going down!" Sokka yells
"No! Sokka! Hold on!" Aang springs into action, unfolding his glider and taking off in one smooth action. Sokka swings his boomerang around attached to a rope.
" Get ready! "
As Aang flies by, Sokka throws the boomerang. It catches on Aang's foot, pulling Sokka and the Machinist clear of the falling balloon. Aang flies them back up, while the balloon continues to fall.
❅
Behind Aang is a circular stone bench on which Katzumi and some of the black and white hermit crabs sit.
"You know what? I'm really glad you guys all live here now. 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." Aang explains making peace with people living in the temple
"That means a lot coming from you." Teo says
"Aang, you were right about air power. As long as we've got the skies we'll have the Fire Nation on the run!"