36 The Drill

{Drop those Stones Dear Travelers!}

At Chameleon Bay, a passenger ship could be seen approaching the docks. Atop the ship, standing at the bow, was a woman in clean 'high-class' earth kingdom clothes, and perched near her on the rails is her beautiful partner Sam.

It was a large creature compared to other birds of prey and its brown coat of feathers glistened in the sun, accentuating the white and red feathers that covered its neck to head area. The red feathers imitate 'blood tears' by streaking from below his eyes to his chest.

"We're finally here Sam, are you ready to head towards the Capital?" ...

The bird responded in a disgruntled *squeak* but the girl just giggled and rubbed his feathers lovingly...

"Don't worry Sam, I'm sure it won't be too crowded there and just think, there will be plenty of new scenery for flying over. Just consider all the new food you can eat!"

This seemed to cheer the bird up. He yelled in cheerfulness as the ship docked beside the walkways, and the passengers began to deboard...

..............

Days passed on Ty Lin's journey to Ba Sing Se and while making her way through the forest, she was regretting her decision to not follow the road but it was just another countermeasure taken in case of still being tracked. Once in the Capital, she can relax since she would be harder to find among the masses if she was being followed...

However, as she traveled through the forest she began to fill the ground shaking and wasn't sure of what it was...she kept running through the foliage as the sound grew louder and more powerful as she continued headed North...

"Check around Sam, come back if you find the cause of this noise and shaking"...

The bird flying at a low altitude above her flew straight up through the canopy and within a couple of minutes, he returned to Ty Lin, and lead her to the edge of the forest at which point she could see the towering walls of Ba Sing Se, bigger than anything she had imagined.

However, at the bottom of the wall was a huge metal contraption. It was a segmented, elongated metal 'drill' that was boring into the grand wall of The Captial and if the glaring Fire nation symbols riddled throughout the machine were any indicator, this was an in-process assault on Ba Sing Se...

To her utter surprise, a few familiar faces could be seen near the metal machine, obviously trying to stop it from digging in various ways, waterbending, earthbending, and there was even a bald kid who speeding down the wall faster than the wind...all in an attempt to stop the machine.

Another familiar face caught Ty Lin's attention, she was wearing a pink and red 'circus' two-piece outfit moving agility while fighting who she remembered as "The Cutie's Sister"...

"Ty Lee...my body's younger sister..."

She watched her identical twin fighting in the almost identical style of combat to hers and she hesitated on what to do since although Ty Lee was still a part of the Fire Nation, she is still my sister and she's not a bad person at all...

Hardening her heart, she knew that good person or not, this war could not continue...if it does, more people like those women and children she saved weeks ago will be sacrificed...

.................

Back in Altissia, in a small quiet coffee shop named Anteiku, a "greenhorn' Traveler was drinking his newly purchased cup of coffee with reverence. This coffee was better than any "Cup of Joe" he's tasted in either BSU or the real world...

If the VR world from which this coffee recipe and ingredients originate was open, then this would make his current predicament easier...' surely such a world wouldn't be as dangerous as The Four Nations right? ' he thought assuredly...

' Gosh, why am I so timid? I came to this VR for adventure, wealth, and most of all, to further my dream! I was even going to stream my journey for the masses...I still can't believe that I chickened out right as I was about to dive into TFNs...'

When going to start his first dive, just as he was about to enter the world, a Diver returned from The Four Nations and was screaming his lungs out...based on the crazed mumbling coming from the pour soul, he was tortured by some 'Dai Li' for speaking about the war...

Watching the man almost fall into insanity before being comforted by the Seraph Psychologists and taken to a recovery facility caused Greg to fear TFNs and decided not to be a Diver...well, that was until Minecraft was announced...