Avatar the last airbender: Kyoshi's descendant

Chapter 7: part II

"You make weapons for the Fire Nation?!" Sokka said angrily, "Explain all this! Now!" demanded Teo. 

The mechanist hesitated, but resigned as he begins to explain, "It was about a year after we moved here. Fire Nation soldiers found our settlement. You were too young to remember this, Teo," as he turned to his son,  "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 looks away in shame and the mechanist heartbroken leaves. We all rushed to his workshop, 

"When are they coming?"

"Soon,"  A candle pops once,  "Very soon.

"You can't give them more weapons," Aang said, 

"If I don't give them what they want, they will destroy this place!" The mechanist said worriedly,

"How can I be proud of you when your inventions are being used for murder?" Teo asked, 

"I need some time to think," The bell rings on his desk,  "You need to leave! Go!"

"We're not leaving!" Teo said, "Then hide! Quickly!" We hid behind some of his inventions. Then a few minutes later we heard footsteps, "You know better than to keep me waiting. Give me what you owe us so we can be on our way," there was silence, "Well? Is there a problem?" 

"No, right this way." the mechanist said hurriedly, Aang then leaves from his hiding spot, "Aang what are you doing, " I whispered to him, Aang air bends the door shut, and jumps in front of the door. 

"The deal's off." Aang said, "Aang, don't get involved!" warned the mechanist. 

"If I don't get what I came here for, the Fire Nation will burn this place to rubble!" threatened a fire nation noble,  "Get out of here!"  Aang slaps him in the face with an air swipe, "You're leaving empty-handed!"

"Then the destruction of this temple, will be on your head!" he said menacingly pointing to Aang, He leaves through the trap door and Aang airbends it shut.

A few hours later we all were at the tall bridge, watching to see if the fire nation will show. 

"This is bad," Teo said, "Very bad!" joined Sokka, "Very very  bad," I joined. 

Katara turns to Aang, "Aang, what are we going to do?How can we possibly keep them all away?" 

"I'll tell you how. We have something they don't," he points to the sky, "Air power. We control the sky. That's something the Fire Nation can't do. We can win!"

"I want to help" said the mechanist as he appeared at the entrance, Teo smiled. 

"Good. We'll need it," Aang said. A few minutes later we are all at the workshop as the mechanist and Sokka unveil their new invention. 

" We finally got the war balloon working, thanks to Sokka. This boy's a genius!"

"Thank you. You're a genius!"

"Thank you!" Katara, myself and Aang exchange unamused glances,

"See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get it air-borne," Sokka places the candle in the model, "but once it did, it just kept going," He continues and pulls a string connected to the model, putting it on the table, "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?"

"Ugh, if only we knew." Teo, Katara, myself and Aang laugh, Sokka narrows his eyes in our direction, then continued, "A lid is actually the answer. If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon."

"Huh, that's actually pretty smart," Katara said impressed. 

"Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs:" Sokka said as he begins listing them off on his fingers, "smoke, slime, fire, and .."

"Stink! Never underestimate the power of stink!" said the mechanist. 

"I knew I smelt the stench of rotten eggs," I said as I covered my nose, everyone laughs.

An hour later everyone is outside, watching anxiously for any sign of the Fire Nation.

"Here they come!"  

"Are we ready?" Teo asked, 

"Yes. But where's Sokka with the war balloon?" Katara asked worriedly, 

" We'll have to start without it." Aang said as he jumps on Appa. 

The people readied themselves for take off, they begin the assault as their gliders fly off into the air, Katara, Aang and I rode on Appa, Aang jumping onto an air scooter, moving across a ledge, causing snow to fall onto soldiers below before jumping back onto his glider. Some of the soldiers began to retreat, "We've got them on the run! We need more slime!" Aang said. The gliders flew up through the clouds to Appa and receiving more bombs from Katara and I, suddenly hooks fly through the clouds nearly hitting Appa and latching onto the cliff. Aang sees this and manages to remove one hook. The tank falls before sending out another hook.

"Those things are unstoppable!" 

"I think I know how they work," Teo said thoughtfully remembering.  "Really? How?" I asked, "I remember my dad tinkering with the counterbalancing system. Something to do with water. Works great, huh?" Then Katara face lit up as if she'd strucked an idea, she turned to me, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking? " I nodded, "Hey Teo, Can you get us close to one?"

"No problem," Teo said.

Aang was busy fending off the fire nations attacks, Katara and I landed next to him. 

"Ok Amaya, follow my lead," 

"Right," 

Katara uses her freeze breath and dismantled the ships, I did the same, using ice spikes at the sides of the tanks. Suddenly a fire blast was seen hurdling towards Katara,  Aang defends Katara from fire blasts before Appa drops in front and knocks the tanks away. We got on Appa and flew to the temples balcony. 

"We're out of bombs!" Teo cried, "Come on Sokka. Where's that war balloon?" Katara said to herself. Then the war balloon appears behind Katara, the balloon let go a huge bomb, the bomb hits the ground and green stinky sludge engulfs the fire nation tanks and soldiers.  We looked in desperation too see what was going to happen next suddenly a loud explosion was heard. 

"Get down!" I cried as I huddled next to Teo, Katara and Aang. When the bombing stopped we all looked over again, "Look! They're retreating!" Aang said,  Cheers rang from crowd. But suddenly the balloon was soaring downward, "We're going down!" cried Sokka, "No, Sokka! Hold on!" yelled Katara. 

Aang jumps on his glider and flies toward them, I watched for 2 agonizing seconds, then suddenly Aang was seen flying with Sokka and the mechanist. A few minutes later we were all gathered, "You know what?  I'm really glad you guys all live here now," Aang said as he picks up a hermit crab, "I realized, 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," 

Teo smiles, "That means a lot, coming from you." 

"Aang you were right about air power. As long as we've got the skies, we'll have the Fire Nation on the run," Sokka said, the crowd roared with cheers.