Chapter 94 - Meeting Ty Lee and Mai

A few days after they left the North Pole, Seras and the gang were on Appa heading south east to Omashu. According to some calculations Seras did, they should be there in the next few hours.

"Come on~ Seras! Show me again." Katara was beside her begging.

"No."

"Why not!?" She huffs angrily and pouts.

"You're not ready for it yet. Even I'm not a hundred percent sure about using it."

"But it's hilarious!" She points to Sokka who was doing the cactus dance form when he was in the desert.

"Will you guys stop it already!?" Sokka yells.

'Oh, he can speak? I guess there isn't much blood in the face itself so it takes more control to prevent talking.' Seras takes a mental note of this as she responds.

"Then stop being annoying." She stops the blood bending on Sokka who tumbled to the ground from not being ready.

"I still don't think you should learn it Katara. It seems like such an evil art." Aang speaks up with a worried look.

"That's true, but Seras says there are other people who can use it and the only way to counteract them is using it yourself. I don't want us to be in trouble if Seras isn't around."

"....that's true...." Aang nods slowly.

"Also, it will help with my control of water bending. I might have reached master level according to Master Pakku, but my control still needs work."

"That's great and all, but who will you use it on to train?" Sokka asks.

"You, of course!"

"Heck no!" He crosses his arms in an X.

"He's right, Katara. You can't train in people without experience first. You might rip a whole in them or accidentally kill them by putting too much blood to their brain."

"Oh....." she goes a little pale at the thought and her enthusiasm was lessened considerably.

Aang sighs in relief behind her at this when he sees something in front.

"Look guys! We're here!" He points forward and the other three look in that direction.

"Finally! I was worried I was either going to run out of meat or get turned into a pretzel. I'm still deciding which is worse though...." he gives a serious look like he's deep in thought toward the end.

"Uh guys.....Omashu seems different." Seras notices the change in the city and recognizes that it's even different from her memory of the show.

In the original, much of the city was untouched except for 8-10 factories were placed inside of it pumping out smoke. However, it also has multiple guard towers along with what looks like siege weapons. Seras notices that a guard was about to look up at them when she holds out her hand.

She performs a crushing motion as the guy's eyes burst. The man screamed from the pain but they were too far to hear it, except her of course.

"Appa, get down into the forest." She tells the bison who nods in silence.

Aang notices this and has a depressed look about him. He frowns as they land and when they get off Seras asks him what's wrong.

"Nothing, it's just it took me forever before Appa would do as I told him and you, who was barely with him a couple months, can do it."

"Pfft!" Katara and Sokka cover their mouths because of this.

"Groan...." appa trudges forward and licks aang's back which pushes him upward a little.

"Hahaha, I love you too buddy." He pats the animal's head gently.

"Ok then people. It seems that we have a major problem." Sokka takes the lead.

"Oh really?" Katara asks sarcastically.

"Katara, just let him do this. It's really the only thing he's good at." Seras pats her shoulder before they both start laughing.

"Hey! I'm also great at throwing boomerangs and telling jokes! Anyway, back to the serious business." He takes a stick and starts drawing on the ground.

Seras notices that it's an accurate depiction of the guard tower positions of the city despite the horrible drawing. It takes a few minutes but Sokka gets down drawing and looks up.

"The fire nation has taken Omashu. I don't understand how the Northern WTer Tribe hasn't received any information about this considering it's probably been over a month since it's capture."

"What makes you say that?" Aang asks while feeding Momo.

"Because of the amount of guard towers and factories stationed here." Seras states.

"Is that what those are!? I thought they were animals." Katara yells in realization.

"Ahem!" Sokka covers just mouth with a fist as a blush forms.

"As! I! Was! Saying! We can safely assume that Bumi was captured before they took over the city."

"Why?" Katara asks.

"Because when we were there last, despite his ways, the man was a fantastic leader. All of the city's residents loved him so if they killed him there would only be two outcomes."

"....what outcomes?" Aang asks.

"The city is destroyed completely due to the entirety of the city revolting, or it would have been a stealth assassination and the fire nation would have set up a dummy leader in his place. Either way, the city would not have its current look."

'He is good at this.' Seras thinks to herself.

"This situation leaves us with two options." He holds up two fingers.

"And those are?" Katara is getting annoyed at having to extract the answers which sokka notices.

He puts down his middle finger before speaking.

"One. We sneak inside the city, find and rescue bumi, then stage a revolt." He pauses and holds up the second finger.

"Or two. We do a frontal assault."

"What!? That's insane!" Katara yells.

"I agree." Aang nods.

"Hey, I was only stating the options. Given the situation, we might have to combine them though."

"Oh? What do you mean by that?" Seras speaks up.

"I mean we use our only advantage. You." He points to her.

"You use your ability to move through walls to find and rescue Bumi then bring him back here."

"That's a good plan. Most likely he is in the palace, probably in the dungeons. What will you guys do while I do this?"

"We will try to find a way to sneak inside the city. This area has only been recently built so there has to be a few blind spots." Sokka answers easily.

"Very well. Then that is what we shall do. Good job Sokka." Seras genuinely states this making him speechless but soon blushes and turns away.

"Aww~ is someone embarrassed~? Come here you!" She grabs his neck with her arm so it's in her elbow and beings it to her chest so his cheek is against her breast.

"What are you-?" Before he can finish he feels a fist being rubbed harshly against his hair making it burn a little.

"Ow! I thought you said I did good!? Why are you hurting me!?" He throws her arm off rather easily and steps back.

"So you don't let the compliment go to your head. Anyway, I'll be going now." Seras walks toward the city.

"Be safe Seras!" Aang yells.

"Please don't get hurt!"

"Don't worry, this will be a cinch." She gives a thumbs up before phasing into the ground.

It took Seras the better part of 30 minutes to find Bumi and she had a great laugh when she did. The elderly man was in the metal coffin from the show, suspended off the ground by about 30 meters in the caves beneath the palace. He was snoring as a bubble formed from his nose.

Seras materializes our of the ground beneath him and looks up. Before she can react however, 5 arrows hit her from different directions. She groans in pain beofre jumping to the side as another five arrows were shot.

'Who is this? I figured there would be birds around, but tone this fast and accurate with arrows. It can be only the archers Zhao used when Zuko saved Aang.' Serasthinks to herself as she snaps the head of an arrow in her shoulder, off beofre dodging another set of arrows.

As she dodged and takes out the arrows from her body, she pinpoints all five archers' positions and decides to not take the easy way out.

'Let's see how good you guys really are.' Seras smirks as she heads toward one of the archers.

Two of the archers figured out what she was doing, but the last two didn't and fired to her position. Seras heard the arrow pierce the archer she's closest to and his body fall to the ground.

"Very good gentlemen! That was 150 meters with just a bow and arrow. Consider me impressed." She stops in place and begins clapping.

"You bitch!" One of them yell.

Before Seras can kill the maggot, a person drops from above and it turns out to be someone Seras recognized. The long pony tailed woman quickly hits her leg pressure points with incredible accuracy and she drops to the ground.

Almost immediately three small blades are thrown to her face. Seras catches all three between her fingers with ease and drops them to the ground.

"Ah, that was good. But I'm afraid you chose the wrong opponent." Seras kicks Ty Lee's legs and she trips because she didn't think she could move yet.

Another two blades are thrown but Seras catches them again beofre throwing them to two of the remaining archers. When the two body thuds sound out, an authoritative voice sounds out.

"Enough." Azula comes from a stair case with a small frown on her face.

"Azula, you didn't say she was such a monster." An apathetic voice sounds envy as a black haired girl walks out from a stalagmite.

"Yeah! Her pressure points are hard to hit and they quickly recover." Ty lee's states in her peppy voice.

"I told you two that she is a strong foe in both strength and intelligence. That's why I have spent so much time on this city even after we conquered it." She sighs while saying this.

"Excuse me?" Seras interrupts the trio of girls and all three turn to her.

"If you guys are just going to keep talking, I might as well take the old guy." She points up at a still sleeping Bumi.

At this point Seras healed from the arrows which was noticed by Azula and her two subordinates. Unknown to all four, one of the archers was the brother of one of the dead ones and was furious at the situation unfolding.

'To hell with this!' He cocks an arrow and releases it at seras' head.

They all hear the arrow cutting through the arrow but didn't see anything until Seras catches it in her palm.

"What!?"

"That wasn't very nice. Can't you see I'm

Having a conversation here?" She turns to the archer before looking back at Azula.

"Do you mind?"

"By all means." Azula shrugs indifferently as all of her subordinates are confused.

Seras picks up one of Mai's knives on the ground and throws it with what looks like a small amount of force. Of course, due to her nature it was much stronger than any human could do. The arrow blows through the archer's skull and embeds itself into the cave wall which creates a loud sound.

"Hm? *snort* Huh?" Bumi wakes up and takes a look around while smacking his lips.

When he spots Seras he goes a little wide eyed before grinning in an insane way.

"So, the rabbit has come back. Are you here for more carrots?" The question thoroughly confused everyone else in the cave, but Seras answered immediately.

"Oh no, I'm here for the whole garden."

"Hohoho! Well then, you'll have to get rid of the pests first." He laughs with amusement that someone else can understand him so well.

"Of course, that is the plan." Seras looks back at Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai as she cracks her knuckles.

"Wait a minute." Azula speaks up which makes Seras stop.

"Are we not doing this? I figured you would fight to keep him here."

"You're right about that, but coming up with a way to kill you doesn't seem possible so I have to go about this another way." She smirks confidently.

"Which is?"

"Why, keeping you busy of course. No matter how strong you are, you have to have a breaking point." She claps her hands twice and a soldier from behind her pulls a lever.

Mechanical sounds are heard throughout the cave and a giant hole opens up in the ceiling.

"Wheeee!!!!!" Bumi is quickly withdrawn through the hole and then the hole closes.

"....Seras watches this happen and shakes her head with a smile at the old man's antics.

"Are yo unsure you should be standing there? That wasn't the only thing it did." Azula was with Ty Lee and Mai as all entrances and exits from the cave closed up.

Water begins rushing into the place at a tremendous speed. Seras leisurely puts out her palm and all the ice freezes over within an instant. She then phases into the ground to begin her search again.

Azula was walking quickly to the command center as Ty Lee and Mai were with her.

"I don't get it. You know she can phase through surfaces but you spent so much time on such a trap." Mai shakes her head apathetically.

"In order to defeat someone, you must know about them. Other than her tremendous healing ability and phasing through objects we know next to nothing about her. Only some theories based on other people's experiences."

"Then.....you're doing all this just to know more about her abilities?" Mai asks in shock.

"Of course. Omashu was only a priority target because it hasn't been taken, now that we proved we can, the earth kingdom can have it back. It provides neither resources nor willing subjects."

"Oh! Now I get it." Ty Lee hits her palm with a fist as the two girls turn to her.

"The reason you're doing this is because you have a crush on her! Hehe, Azula, I didn't think you had it in you." She nudges the princess who was shocked still which makes her regain her thoughts.

"That's ridiculous! I don't have such thoughts!"

"Oh really~? Then why are you blushing?" She pokes Azula's cheek but it was smacked away.

"It is an insane thought and I expect you to not voice such an opinion again. Do you understand?" Her question has a hint of malice which made the circus performer immediately stop.

Azula walks away briskly leaving the other two behind as they look at one another.

"I think you may be onto something." Mai states.

"Of course! I may not be the brightest fire on a candle, but I do know my way around personal relationships." She crosses her arms proudly.

They both walk again after saying this.