Aang and the gang had been camped in the mountains for a few days now so that Toph and Aang could get some earthbending training done. They usually tried to keep on the move, least they get ambushed by fire nation troops, however, Aang was making real progress and both he and Toph insisted on staying longer. Most of the moves Aang had learned were pretty basic, which was ok with Aang, as he spent most of his time thinking of ways he could combine his water, earth and air bending into super cool moves anyway.
Little did Aang's friends realize though was that Princess Azula and her posse of elite friends were hot on their trail. Mei, with her dagger and dart throwing skills and Ty lee, with...whatever it is she does (Azula doesn't really know) rounded out the elite group headed by Princess Azula herself, a fire bending prodigy and one of the few fire benders capable of electricty bending. As fate would have it Azula and her friends were no more than a few hundred yards away from Aang's encampment when our story begins...
"No, no, no Aang, you got to wait for the right moment to strike!" said a frustrated Toph.
"Now, you know how I felt.." said Katara. Aang raised an eyebrow to Katara who quickly just smiled back.
"You know, for only a few days of training I think I'm doing pretty -OOF!" Aang didn't even finish his thought before he was knocked down with a well placed rock to the stomach.
"The difference between 'pretty well' and the correct way can be deadly! Try and get it right this time, ok?" said Toph.
Aang dusted himself off and took his position once again. In no time at all Toph summoned several rocks from the ground and hurled them at Aang. Aang quickly countered with his own earthbending and all present were mighty impressed.
"That was..the correct way Aang." said a smiling Toph. Aang dusted his hands.
"I think thats enough for the moment, lets get some food and rest." said Aang. Sokka's eyes lit up immediately.
"That's the first sensible thing I heard all day...let's go!" said Sokka, running to his tent. Toph followed, leaving Aang and Katara to walk back together.
"You're doing really good Aang! I'm sure you'll master all four elements way before summer! said Katara.
"You think so? I don't know. I'm doing good, but...the fire lord sounds pretty unbeatable..." said Aang.
"That's because he is!" said Azula who walked up casually followed by Mei. Ty Lee soon joined them, jumping out of a tree like a gymnast.
Aang's face became grave and serious and both he and Katara went into their battle stances.
"Guys, what sounds better to you? The earth kingdom bean special or the-" said Sokka running up to the group and stopping when he realized who was there. Toph could sense the danger and also assumed her battle stance.
"You guys couldn't beat us in Omashu, and now we have a earthbending champion with us! You can't win!" yelled Katara.
"Do you think one more little girl is going to make difference?" asked Azula who almost laughed.
"Why don't you come and see the difference!" yelled Toph.
"I'd rather not...now there's no reason for things to get messy, just hand over the avatar and I will spare the rest of you." said Azula looking at her nails.
"Fat chance, fire, uh...girl...why don't YOU leave before I show you my super-amazing Avatar powers!" said Aang who quickly did a few earth and air bending moves...Azula was not intimidated in the least.
"I'll take my chances little boy." said Azula and without a second more hesitation, signaled Mei and Ty Lee to Attack. Sokka quickly unsheathed his boomerang and headed back to the camp to get Appa ready to leave. Katara began to use her water bending to block Mei's darts, much like their first fight in Omashu.
Meanwhile, Ty Lee confronted Toph, slowly approaching the blind girl, who stood almost completely still.
"Come on little girl, don't give us any trouble.." said Ty Lee.
"I don't need advice from old ladies!" said Toph who earthbended a rock underneath Ty Lee and sent her flying into a tree.
"Old ladies?" said a slightly stunned Ty Lee who quickly recoverd , swung through the branches like a monkey and landed right back in front of Toph and began her assault of precision strikes.
Azula and Aang were having their own fierce fight. Azula's fire bending and speed was far greater than any other fire bender Aang had fought before and even with his agility he was having a hard time keeping up. He used every trick he could think of, yet he was stuck in a stalemate with Azula. Azula's attacks became ever fiercer and more powerful and she was really going all out in her attacks against the Avatar, unwilling to accept defeat a second time against this kid and begin down the path that Zuko had begun down. Yet, for all that, Aang seemed to never get tired and Azula was actually beginning to get nervous as all her attacks seem to be in vain and for the first time in her life, she began to think she would not be able to defeat this foe...yet she had one more ace up her sleeve.
At that moment, Sokka came back on top of Appa and landed in the middle of the epic battle and hollered for his friends to get on. Katara quickly used her water whip to trip Mei, who fell flat on her face and Toph easily launched Ty Lee back into the same tree with another round of earthbending maneuvers and joined the water siblings a top the flying bison. Aang tried to look for a way out of his fight with Azula, whos eyes blazed like doomsday and blue fire raged ever more intense. Using everything he had left in him, Aang called forth a mighty blast of air to send Azula flying back a few yards and landing on her back. Aang quickly used his airbending to jump back to Appa and with a quick "yip yip" was airborn and seemingly victorious against yet another failed fire nation attempt on his life. Azula clenched her fist as the bison ascended and with all her will and might began her lightning bending attack; Mei and Ty Lee quickly got out of the way.
"I'm better than Zuko...I will get the Avatar!" shouted Azula loudly enough for Aang and his friends to hear and with that she shot forth a mighty bolt of electricty at the bison. Aang's fast reflexes saw the bolt coming towards him and his friends and selflessly he jumped toward the bolt and tried to air bend it away. Yet the bolt was far too fast and poweful for Aang to counter and he made virtually no impact on it on in as it struck him and he fell to the ground. All aboard the bison screamed in horror as the hope of the world began to plummet to the earth and Sokka quickly grabbed the reigns of appa and began to descend to try and catch Aang.
Yet they were not fast enough and Aang fell in to the trees below, snagging on branch midway down one of the trees. Ty Lee quickly jumped into the tree and retrieved Aang and brought him down to Azula.
"Get him out of here quickly!" shouted Azula as she began shooting flames at the bison to keep them at bay. Ty Lee threw Aang on her back and she and Mei quickly made to the safety of the trees. Sokka steered the bison and dodged the constant barage of flames. Katara frantaclly used up all her water to try and extinguish the flames, and when she did run out became ever more distressed. Toph tried to concentrate to try and earthbend the rocks around Azula, but they were so high up and the noise around her so loud that she could not pinpoint Azula and could only earthbend randomly hoping to hit Azula. This went on for a few more minutes until when Azula could no longer see Ty Lee and Mei, she quickly let loose a huge fire ball to cover herself and she retreated herself. Leaving the bison, lemur and all the human riders to ponder what they should do next...