Kuvira's Assistant

Chapter 28

The Great Uniter grunted as she tumbled onto the hard and rough concrete street. A powerful spirit energy blast ripped through a pair of skyscrapers not too far from her location, sending a ripple of quakes in her direction.

"RAN, you've got to be more careful with that! We have no idea where the Great Uniter could be down there!! What if she's in one of those buildings?!!" An operator cried out, pointing at a cluster of tall buildings which just missed Ran's careless spirit blast.

"Do you want to take a break and let someone else take control?" Operator Sen asked Ran as she approached him gently.

"Ex-CUSE me?!" He snarled at her, turning his attention to her whilst simultaneously mishandling the spherical controls of the giant, "Think YOU could do a better job?"

BOOM.

The giant mecha let out another accidental and devastating blow to the city's infrastructure, slapping its arm right across five skyscrapers. The motion caused its entire torso to jolt, making Bolin cry in terror as he dangled mid-air. At that moment, he was strapped to Lin's back with her makeshift metal harness; with Lin's every jump as she nimbly scaled the giant, his face would welt against her cool shoulderblades. The sound of the metal whips as they coiled back with her every maneuver freaked him out, but he tried his best to keep quiet as she'd repeatedly instructed him.

Despite the awkward pairing, Lin stayed focussed on her climbing. From time to time, she'd have to swat the younger earthbender's hands out of the way when they'd accidentally slide up her torso as he clutched onto her for dear life. In the meantime, Suyin and her two sons kept the giant distracted.

The Chief sighed as they paused for a swift breather, nearing the giant's head and dangling on two metal cables.

"BOLIN!" She barked, having looked down to find his hands squeezing her chest yet again. No wonder she felt like she was running out of air.

"Wh-a-ha-aaat?!" He wailed, wondering what her problem was this time.

"For the tenth time: HANDS!!" She glared at him from over her shoulder.

"Oh, SORRY!! I'm so sorry!! I mean I can't FEEL anything through your armour anyways!!"

"I DON'T CARE. FOCUS."

Meanwhile, Iroh and Mako ducked below the edge of the expansive glass windshield at the front of the mecha's head. There was a deep crevice between the mecha's shoulders and the slope of its head, wide enough for only one person to crawl through at a time.

"They seem to be bickering amongst themselves. I can see four of them." Iroh whispered back to Mako, who caved his shoulders inwards while on all fours, trying to fit in the tight crack.

"Are they all distracted?" The detective asked him.

"Seems so. Two are shouting at each other while one's scrambling around some controls. The other's trying to calm them down, I think."

"I think it's our time to move, then."

Iroh slid right below the hole Akemi had created.

"Shit," He turned to Mako, "be careful here. There's shards everywhere and the edges are super sharp."

"Guys... GUYS!!!" The mediating operator finally screamed at both Sen and Ran, "... You'll have to work together for this..." She added, pointing at Iroh who was one leg in and one leg out of the glass hole.

The prince looked up at them like a deer in headlights.

Akemi was racing down Republic City's barren streets on her blue fire scooter, scarring the roads as she rolled. Her eyes were fixed into the distance as she neared a four-way crossing.