(1) Augmentum | Zuko

Chapter Eighty-Five

Aang stands in front of his friends as Sokka finishes sealing Rana's bandage against her side. They all listen to Aang as he tells them about the Fire Nation and the threat now facing the temple because he got a little heated and stood up for the civilians here. He might have doomed them all. These people aren't really built for a fight with the Fire Nation.

"This is bad!" Sokka tells Aang. "Very bad!"

"What are we gonna do?" Katara asks as she sits next to Rana. "How can we possibly keep them all away?" Aang worries his lip and glances at Rana. She gives him a look back. He can do this. He can make a plan here. But he looks so scared of getting it wrong. Rana sits up, careful of her side.

"We have something they don't" She offers, Sokka and Katara look at her, she points up at the sky to where a few gliders are moving. "Right now...We control the sky. That's something the Fire Nation can't do"

"I want to help" The Mechanist states behind Aang.

"Good, we'll need it" She offers and then moves to stand, only to cringe and drop back. "Urm. You guys go on ahead....." She touches her side and then falls back against Appa's side.

"Can you fight at all?" Aang asks. "I don't think we can do this without you" Rana shrugs.

"I can't bend right now....air-bending the door open took it out of me....but maybe I can offer some assistance from the sky" She pulls the crystal ball from her neck and holds it out. Noivern erupts from it and lets out a sort of roar of agreement.

"Rana, I think you underestimate how much you twist and move on Noi's back" Sokka offers. "I don't think you'll even manage that without ripping your side" He then gives her a scolding look. "Yet again" She turns to look at him.

"Well, I can't just sit here" She complains. She really would hate it if she had to sit out a fight. Not against the Fire Nation. What would be the point in her being an Elemental if she can't do her job? What if she is really bad at this? What if she's the worst Elemental that ever existed? "I can't do nothing" She adds and looks at Sokka who understands. She's a warrior with a warrior's heart. Sitting out the fight isn't part of her nature.

........

The Mechanist's office is full of people including his son and Katara, Rana, Pikachu, Sokka and Aang as they listen to the Mechanist go through what he has to offer them against the Fire Nation.

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

"Thank you. You're a genius!" Sokka counters with a smile.

"Thank you!"

"See, the problem with the old war balloon was you could get it airborne, but once you did, it just kept going" Sokka demonstrates with a model that goes up and hits the ceiling. "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." Katara comments dryly, Rana smirks a little. Aang, Teo and Katara laugh. Sokka now has another model, but this balloon has a mechanism to open and close a lid on its top.

"A lid is actually the answer. If you control the hot air, you control the war balloon" Sokka demonstrates by pulling a string connected to the lid that opens and closes it.

"Hmm. That's actually pretty smart" Rana points out.

"Okay, we've got four kinds of bombs. Smoke, slime, fire and..."

"...stink" The Mechanist adds. "Never underestimate the power of stink!" Rana lets out a breath and nods. They can do this.

..........

Rana stands with Noivern and Pikachu, the rest of her pokemon scattered behind her, herding the children of the residents together to keep them safe. They know their job is to keep the Fire Nation from the children.

"They're coming!" A little girl shouts and then hugs Lycanroc, crying into her fur.

"Are we ready?" Teo asks.

"Yes, but where's Sokka with the war balloon?" Katara asks, she looks at Rana who lets out a breath, turning she climbs onto Noivern's back, settling into his saddle.

"We'll have to start without him" Rana answers adjusting the reins. Aang jumps down from Appa and readies his glider. Momo lands on the top of Aang's glider. Teo smiles as he pulls on his goggles. Behind them, two rows of gliders stand ready to launch. Rana, Aang and Teo near the head. Teo gives a thumbs up, then Rana begins the launch sequence. Noivern flaps his wings as he runs towards the edge of the terrace, picking up speed as he goes before he launches himself off the edge, taking flight. Aang flies off next, followed by Teo and then the rest. The deck crews cheer as the gliders launch.

....

The path up to the Air Temple is choked with Fire Nation soldiers climbing up it. Up above, Rana, Aang and Teo dive, the other gliders in tow. They break through the cloud deck and start dropping various bombs on the surprised soldiers. Noivern lets out a sonic boom. Many fall off the path into the crevices below.

"Take them out of the sky, now!" A Fire Nation commander orders of his men when they are suddenly bombed by gliders. Aang jumps off his glider onto the ground just above the most advanced part of the Fire Nation infantry column. As he jumps he creates an air scooter. He rides along the length of the small cliff face, dumping huge amounts of snow and ice on the soldiers below. When he reaches the end, he kills the air scooter and jumps back onto his glider which is gliding by. The avalanche he created continues to drop downward, engulfing row after row of soldiers. Those left begin to run back down the path.

"We've got'em on the run! We need more slime!" Aang cheers. In the sky, Appa floats motionless above the cloud deck, Katara hands bombs to gliders who pop up over Appa and then disappear back into the combat zone. Suddenly, several huge spikes shoot up through the clouds, narrowly missing Appa. The spikes are attached to chains that disappear, taught, into the clouds. The spikes embed themselves deep into the rock near the Temple. Noivern and Rana fly hard to avoid the grappling hooks being thrown up all over the place, Pikachu clutching to Rana's head, trying to remain upright and onboard. The chain descends again. Fire Nation tundra tanks roar up the road, with two, huge spiked wheels at each end, these heavily armoured vehicles are using the grappling hooks to allow them to scale the cliff face. The gliders all drop bombs on them, but they have little effect. Suddenly, an echoing and increasing war cry comes from the clouds and with some speed, a team of flying pokemon and vastaya riders descend. Rana pulls Noivern around to a stop to watch them all as they head straight into the fight. Fire attacks. Water attacks. Ice attacks. They hit the Fire Nation with everything that they have.

"Come on" She pushes Noivern forward and he dives with them. She's not about to let them have all the fun.