Double Bender

Part 35

A few more hours passed without event. We were all sleeping soundly when suddenly, I heard an explosion. I rushed out into the lobby and joined Teo (the wheelchair boy, he was very nice), the Duke, Haru, Chit Sang, Hakoda, and the rest in the lobby. "What was that?" I said. Everyone started at me and shrugged. Aang jumped down from the cieling. "We're under attack." he said. Several bombs flew down from the sky. But where in the world were they coming from? The bombs exploded and the ceiling started to crumble above me. "Look out!" Zuko said. He lunged at me and pushed me out of the way just in time. If he had gotten me a second later, I would have been crushed. However, I was in a very sour mood that morning and I was still very mad at Zuko. Well, he just saved my life but on the downside, he was on top of me...awkward. "What are you doing?" I said. "Uh, saving your life." Zuko said snidely. "Okay, I'm not crushed. Now get off! And here's a tip for the future. Next time you save my life, try to do it without jumping on me." Zuko rolled his eyes. "I'll take that as a 'thank you'." he said. Oh sarcasm, you wonderful evil. Toph and Geo spun around and made a hole in the wall, leading to a tunnel. "We can get out through here." said Toph. Aang tried pulling Appa towards the tunnel but Zuko stayed where he was. "What are you doing?" Aang yelled. "You go on ahead." Zuko said quickly. "I'll hold them off. I have a feeling that this is a family visit." "You idiot." I said. "Zuko wait!" Aang yelled. "Come on." said Sokka. "We gotta get out of here." Toph made the hole in the side deeper. "Come on!" she said. We all ran in but Appa wouldn't budge. "Move it, fluff ball!" Geo yelled. Aang, Toph, Sokka, Geo and I tried to pull on Appa's reins to try and get him to move. "I can't get him to go in." said Aang. "Appa hates tunnels." "There's no way we can fly out of here." Katara said. "We have to find a way." Aang responded. "We need to split up." he continued. Katara looked dismal. Sokka turned towards Chit Sang, Teo, Haru, the Duke, and Hakoda, who were in the tunnel. "Follow this tunnel to the stolen airship." Sokka instructed. "No," Katara said. "The Fire-Nation can't separate our family again." "It'll be okay." said Hakoda, placing his hands on her shoulders. "It's not forever." Katara hugged her father and ran towards Appa. We all climbed to the saddle as more debris fell from the explosion. "I can clear the way and we can fly out over there." said Toph, pointing in the other direction. Suki climbed into the saddle. "There's an awful lot of fire over in that direction." she said nervously. "We'll get through." said Aang. "Yip yip." Appa flapped his tail and we took off into the sky. Another bomb exploded and more debris fell and almost landed on Katara's head. I looked over and saw a figure standing on one of the airships. It was a girl with long brown hair, dressed completely in red, and an evil expression on her face. Azula. Not again. She had apparently seen us too. She blew a huge jet of blue fire at us. If it weren't for Aang's skillful maneuvering and Appa's swift flying, we would have been blasted. Appa flew high enough to avoid the flames and Katara brought out a ring of water to prevent any of us from getting burned. I looked over the side of the saddle to see Zuko and Azula head on in a heated battle. Zuko blew several jets of fire at Azula and she always retorted. Finally, Zuko sent one final jet out and rushed in towards his sister. Azula dodged and jumped towards Zuko. The two of them rushed in towards each other and their fists collided, creating a huge explosion. The two of them became hidden by an enormous cloud of black smoke. "Where is he?" said Geo. "I don't know." said Aang. "I don't see him." The smoke cleared as we saw that Azula was pushed onto her back and skidded off the surface. Zuko was skidding across the top of the airship and fell off the edge! He was hanging on for dear life but he wasn't going to hold for very long. The two siblings lost their grip and fell off. Aang tugged on the reins and Appa flew lower, under Zuko so we could catch him. Aang reached out his hand and pulled Zuko into the saddle. Once he was in, we all looked over the side at Azula, who was still falling. "She's not going to make it." Zuko said. I couldn't tell if it was relief or concern. Azula, who was still falling, pulled out her hair clip and straightened her legs. Fire shot out of the ends of her feet as she shot through the air towards the cliff. She dug the clip into the side of the mountain and started to fall for a little bit but then her descent slowed to a stop. "Of course she did." Zuko muttered. Azula looked over at us and, it was very hard to tell from the distance, but I'm pretty sure she was grinning.