we had only just left the pathway and finished our journey to ba sing se when aang swooped down.
'aang, what are you doing here? i thought you were looking for appa?' asked katara, astonished.
'i was, but something stopped me. something big.'
'now what's so big that appa has to wait?' wondered sokka as aang and toph earth bended us to the top of the wall.
'that.' said aang, pointing to a giant iron drill with a fire nation insignia plastered onto it.
'we made it to ba sing se, and we're still not safe. no one is.' ting despaired
'what are you people doing here?' asked an earth bender guard from behind us, causing us to turn around, 'civilians aren't allowed on the wall.'
'i'm the avatar. take me to whoever's in charge.' said aang, determined.
they brought us to another part of the wall where the general was.
'it is an honor to welcome you to the outer wall young avatar, but your help is not needed.' said the general
'not needed?'
he grinned smugly, 'not needed. i have the situation under control. i assure you the fire nation cannot penetrate this wall. many have tried to break through it, but none have succeeded.'
he rose as he spoke, leading us to the edge of the wall.
'what about the dragon of the west? he got in.' asked toph
'well... uh... technically yes. but he was quickly expunged.' the general replied, flustered - but then more confidently, 'nevertheless, that is why the city is named ba sing se. it's the impenetrable city. they don't call it na sing se. that means penetrable city.'
'yeah, thanks for the tour, but we still got the drill problem.' said toph.
the general paced back and forth, 'not for long. to stop it, i've sent an elite platoon of earthbenders called the terra team.'
'that's a good group name, very catchy.' smiled sokka, lost in thought
we watched as the terra team absoloutely failed their mission.
they all seemed to drop to the floor, one after the other.
and there were only two ways to do that : chi blocking, or strong bending (and i hadn't seen any of the elements used during that fight)
'we're doomed!' cried the general, flailing his arms around in panic
sokka slapped him in the face, 'get a hold of yourself man!'
'you're right, i'm sorry.'
'maybe you'd like the avatar's help now?' said toph.
'yes, please.'
'the question is, how are we gonna stop that thing?' asked aang
we all stared at sokka
'why are you all looking at me?' he asked, perplexed
'you're the idea guy.' aang decided
'so im the only one who can ever come up with a plan? that's a lot of pressure.'
'and also the complaining guy.' i smiled
'that part i don't mind.'
we made our way into the infirmary to talk to the "terra team"
'what's wrong with him? he doesn't look injured.' said the general
me and katara sat by the man : katara healing his left arm and me healing the other.
'his chi is blocked. who did this to you?' answered katara
the soldier was obviously in pain as he spoke, 'two girls ambushed us, one of them hit me with a bunch of quick jabs, and suddenly i couldn't earthbend, and i could barely move... and then she cart wheeled away.'
i looked at katara, 'ty lee'
katara nodded and looked back at her healing, 'she doesn't look dangerous, but she knows the human body and it's weak points. it's like she takes you down from the inside.'
'ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo, ooo!' said sokka, trying to get everyone's attention, 'what you just said, that's how we're gonna take down the drill. the same way ty lee took down all these big earthbenders.'
toph grinned enthusiastically, 'by hitting its pressure points!'
'we'll take it down from the inside.' said aang, looking out the window at the giant drill.
---
we left the infirmary and went ot face the drill (and it was even bigger than i could've imagined).
'once i whip up some cover, you're not gonna be able to see, so stay close to me.' said toph.
she jumped up for the trench we were in and created a dust cover around us, 'run!'
we ran closer to the drill and she created a hole in the ground and yelled.
'everyone into the hole!'
and as soon as she jumped in behind us, she closed it up and we were plunged into darkness.
'it's so dark down here, i can't see a thing.' said sokka
toph feigned horror, 'oh no, what a nightmare.'
'sorry.'
we walked for a second and appeared underneath the drill soon after.
'there!' called sokka, pointing to a hole in the bottom of the drill.
aang hung on one of the metal beams and helped us all up - not that i needed it.
'toph, come on!' i shouted, holding my hands out to her once everyone else was inside.
'no way am i going in that metal monster. i can't bend in there. i'll try to slow it down out here.'
'be careful' i said, going back into the drill.
'i need a plan of this machine. some schematics that show what the inside looks like. then we can find it's weak points.' said sokka
'where are we gonna get something like that' asked aang as sokka chopped off a steam valve with his machete, 'what are you doing! someone's gonna hear us!'
'that's the point. i figure a machine this big needs engineers to run it, and when something breaks...' began sokka.
'they come to fix it.' smiled katara, looking over at us.
and only moments later, a a fire nation engineer walked in.
'hi.' said katara.
she bended the steam around him and condensed it onto him, freezing the man in place.
'this'll work, thanks!' said sokka, taking the plans from his grasp
we walked down the hall and set the parchment down on a pipe.
'it looks like the drill is made up of two main structures. there's the inner mechanism, where we are now, and the outer shell. the inner part and the outer part are connected by these braces. if we cut through them, the entire thing will collapse.' said sokka, tracing his fingers over the paper.
we rushed through the door and found ourselves in the room with the metal structures.
'wow, it looks a lot thicker in person than it does in the plans. we're going to have to work pretty hard to cut through that.' said sokka, looking around.
'what's this we stuff? aang and i are going to have to do all the work.' said katara
sokka gestured around, 'look, i'm the plan guy, you two are the "cut stuff up with waterbending" guys and y/n is the backup. together, we're team avatar!'
we exchanged mortified looks and aang and katara got to work cutting up the beams
they sent the water back and forth, cutting it up relatively quickly but tiring them out before they could finish.
'c'mon team, don't quit now, we're...' began sokka but katara deathstared him, 'i mean, you're almost there.'
they carried on cutting the beam and finally it sliced in two, moving a bit but stopping before it fell off.
'at this rate, we won't do enough damage before the drill reaches the wall.' said katara, sadly
aang sat down, resting, 'i don't know how many more of those i have in me.'
then, the metal moved another inch but stopped again.
'do you hear that? we took it down. we better get out of here fast!' yelled sokka and we raced to the door.
then, a speaker sounded: congratulations crew, the drill has made contact with the wall of ba sing se.