The Legend of Percy: Book 1 - Finding Purpose

15. Fighting on Top of a Drill (It's Not a Train but It'll Do)

After watching Ty Lee and Mai get helped away, trapped in his own ice bonds, he looked to the forces that surrounded him. The plan was working exceptionally.

The two girls weren't getting out of those ice cuffs for a while, even Azula would be hard press to melt the ice. Percy would release his control after a while, when the battle ended. Or when Azula came to him.

He'd felt Toph move the earth underneath him at some point during the fight with the girls. They group had gotten past the tanks and to the drill with relative ease. All the attention was on him. Now all he needed to do was get Azula out. She was the one who was most likely to interrupt the Avatar and his friends, her intelligence and cunning wasn't something he wanted to underestimate.

But to drag Azula out of the relative safety of the massive metal drill, he'd need to cause a commotion. These circumstances weren't unusual to Percy. He'd had to deal with worse odds in the Battle of Manhattan. Not to mention he had much more training than the Fire Nation army would expect. The monsters and titans had learnt not to underestimate him. These people, these mortal adults, hadn't.

He took up his defensive stance and noticed that some of the people in the skull masks matched his preparedness. Maybe some of them aren't as stupid as the others.

The rest of the soldiers, the ones without the masks, all looked way too casual and overconfident. He turned to the periscope of the drill. It was now very obviously focused in on him and he knew exactly who was behind it.

He winked.

And he very much wished he could see her reaction. That's a shame.

Returning his attention to the soldiers, he realised that one of them was trying to talk to him.

"... Were you even listening? If you come with us, it'd be much easier. It would be such a shame to kill you." It was one of the soldiers this time, sneering at Percy. He was standing, arms by his side. Right, the last they saw, my water was used up on the cuffs and my sword was on the ground way off to the side.

Well, it certainly wasn't on the ground anymore. The weight in the pocket of his jeans gave him that much information. He was going to need to use the sword quickly, with so many opponents around. Percy was suddenly very thankful for the training he'd gotten with Suki, and just then with Mai and Ty Lee. It gave him a good gauge for what combat was like in this world.

It was very... martial-arts-styled from what he could gather. He didn't know too much about it but he was getting used to it. That also meant, helpfully, they were not at all used to his style. Percy stood, passively confident, waiting for them to make the first move. The more he got on Azula's nerves, the more time he gave the others and the slower he got the drill to move, meant the more time they had to save the wall.

He could potentially use an earthquake, although he didn't know how helpful it would be. A small earthquake would definitely be useful against the soldiers around him, but if he exerted himself at all, there was a risk to not only his new found companions inside and around the drill, but also to the wall itself. He'd blown up a volcano before, Percy didn't particularly want to make a repeat of natural disasters. This time, a lot more people would be affected.

Percy also didn't want to see if he could create a hurricane. It would've been helpful, but he didn't want people knowing about that. That was a useful thing to hold in his back pocket.

The first soldier charged him, apparently losing patience with the standoff. Not that Percy could complain nor say he couldn't relate. This wasn't a masked soldier, and his curved short sword came at Percy relatively quickly.